Following a muted non-annoucement and an unspecified delay, the director’s cut of the maligned 2008 standalone movie The X Files: I Want to Believe now has an official streaming date on Hulu and Disney Plus, and a bizarre new title along with it.
As announced by the big D (h/t Gizmodo), the “never-before-seen R-rated Chris Carter Director’s Cut” of The X Files: I Want to Believe will stream from August 14 on Hulu or Disney Plus, depending on which part of the world you live in and which bundle you may or may not have. Set to “faithfully restore the filmmaker’s original vision,” the standalone X-Files movie has also been re-monikered with a strange new title: The X-Files: I Want to Believe Vrach Frankenshteyn.
That new title – a clear reference to Victor Frankenstein in Russian – isn’t totally out of left field. If you watched I Want to Believe, you may recall it doesn’t involve aliens at all, but is instead about the grisly theft of organs, which are used to keep one particular character alive, Frankenstein-style. There’s also some ill-advised backstory involving abusive priests. With any luck, Carter has cut that stuff.
Carter revealed the existence of the director’s cut on X-Files star David Duchovny’s podcast last year, with Carter explaining it was an opportunity to “make the scary movie that I always intended.” The original cut was widely panned and is sitting at just 32% on Rotten Tomatoes.
As for The X-Files, after two uninspiring sequel seasons featuring Mulder and Scully, the show is currently being rebooted by Sinners director Ryan Coogler. Filming on the pilot episode recently wrapped, starring The Odyssey’s Himesh Patel and Station Eleven co-star Danielle Deadwyler. There’s currently no official release date.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe Vrach Frankenshteyn streams on Hulu and Disney Plus from August 14. For more, dive into our list of upcoming horror movies, or the best movies on Hulu right now.