Stephen King Almost Ruined Your Parents’ Favorite TV Show (Episode Is Considered Worst in History)

When Stephen King invites you to “join” your movie or TV show, you’d be foolish to decline. The King of Horror is known the world over and his reputation is unmatched. If you didn’t know, here’s a fact: King is the second most screen-adapted writer in the world. Who’s first? William Shakespeare.

So in an attempt to improve the ratings, the entertainment value, and add some viewer love to the X-Files series, King (for some reason) decided to write an episode for them. The showrunners couldn’t refuse the creator and master, of course. And we didn’t even think about it. After all, we repeat, it’s just plain stupid to refuse such a jackpot.

The writer wrote one of the episodes of the series, which was called “Chinga.” This episode centers on Scully as she goes on vacation to Ammas Beach, Maine for some rest and recuperation. But this being The X-Files, Scully gets involved in the case as soon as she arrives in town.

When she arrives at the supermarket, she finds a group of shoppers and store clerks bleeding from their eyes in a bizarre (and inexplicable) case of mass self-harm. One of them, a butcher, even dies after trying to fight off the culprit: an evil talking doll owned by Polly Turner (Jenny-Lynn Hutcheson), daughter of local widow Melissa Turner (Suzanne Hoffman).

Frame from t/s “The X-Files”

The episode turned out to be similar to most of Stephen King’s creations: simply incredibly creepy. But apparently the master went too far. Because viewers all over the world declared almost unanimously: the episode is the worst in the history of the series. It is not known how King himself responded to this assessment, but he did not write a new rule for The X-Files.