2. Darkness Falls
Season 1, Episode 20
As I alluded to earlier, Mulder and Scully again head into the forest, up into the mountains to investigate the disappearance of an entire logging team, who have vanished without a trace. A similar incident is recorded in the same location in 1934, and so Mulder is compelled to investigate. Eco-terrorists, opposing the logging, have left traps, which disable their vehicle and force them to hike the remaining distance to the camp. They find it abandoned, with communication equipment destroyed and no sign of the loggers. They explore and find a strange cocoon in a tree, opening it to discover the desiccated body of one of the logging crew. A member of an eco-terrorist group is caught and explains what they face, and that they must avoid darkness at all costs due to the menace that has been released into the forest by the loggers. The killer is a swarm of insects, driven away by light but creating an all-consuming swarm in the darkness, which they must attempt to flee in a desperate bid to get down the mountain to safety. In a compelling story, this again has classic aspects of a creepy, lost-in-the-woods scenario; drawn by a mysterious disappearance and then trapped within the hours of daylight, up against an unknown evil they cannot fight, and reliant on diminishing fuel that drives a need to escape before its too late. Its a story that could become a tense, nail-biting horror flick worth watching.