Product Details

• Actors: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Charles Cioffi, Cliff De Young, Sarah Koskoff
• Directors: Robert Mandel
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: April 27, 1999
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305321035
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,838 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #13 in	Video > Horror > Television > X-Files
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Destined to become the most collectible video among fans of The X-Files, this two-episode cassette is from the show's excellent fourth season--the first episode presenting a pivotal chapter of the series' conspiratorial "mythology" and the second offering a stand-alone plot so twisted and bizarre that it was banned from Fox TV after its original broadcast.

Scripted by series creator Chris Carter (who is interviewed on this video), "Herrenvolk" is packed with crucial events that link it to previous and subsequent episodes concerning the conspiracy of alien colonization that runs throughout the series. (Because of this, the following synopsis will only make sense to the show's loyal fans.) While Mulder attempts to protect the mysterious Jeremiah Smith (Roy Thinnes) from an alien bounty hunter, he witnesses a secret farm community where clones--including a replica of Mulder's missing sister--carry out some unknown task. Meanwhile, Scully learns the astonishing truth about Smith, and Agent X is gunned down as a traitor, staying alive just long enough to leave Mulder a vital clue to the ongoing investigation. Dealing another trump card in the unfolding conspiracy, Cigarette Smoking Man orders the miraculous healing of Mulder's dying mother, on the logic that "the fiercest enemy is the man who has nothing left to lose."

While "Herrenvolk" is a first-rate chapter with intricate connections to The X-Files mythology, "Home" is a stand-alone episode that surely qualifies as one of the most outrageously bizarre hours of drama in the history of prime-time television. It begins when Mulder and Scully investigate a horrible case of infanticide in the seemingly peaceful town of Home, Pennsylvania. The tiny, malformed corpse leads the agents to investigate the mysterious Peacock family, a trio of hideously deformed brothers who maintain a legacy of inbreeding with their equally disfigured mother, a quadruple amputee who is kept hidden on a rolling platform in the Peacock home. Brilliantly scripted by Glen Morgan and James Wong, "Home" posed a horrifically clever challenge to network censors, and managed to get away with murder in terms of what is implied and actually revealed. The Peacocks are both repugnant and oddly compelling (the writers may have been inspired by the documentary Brother's Keeper), and their loving mother (arguably the most freakish human ever depicted on mainstream TV) will go to any length to continue her family's mutated bloodline. What's most amazing is that "Home" covers this terrible territory with outrageous humor and the appropriate touch of tragedy--not only can Scully ponder the horrors of the Peacock legacy, she can crack wise by quoting the movie Babe while maneuvering through the Peacock's pigpen! And if you think the surviving Peacock brother is just keeping mommy comfortable in the trunk of his Cadillac, well... you haven't been paying attention. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cliche Review Titles Are Out There!, March 22, 2001

By	Lisa (Lexington, MA United States) - See all my reviews

:) I love these two episodes, espeically Home. It's funny, touching, and very gross. The interplay between Mulder and Scully is wonderful in Home. Herrenvolk is another cliffhanger conclusion, which are always essential to the Files. Overall, I'd say this tape is a great addition to any fan's collection, "Phile" or not.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home is wildly entertaining but vicious, June 18, 2006

By	Michael Devereaux (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just saw a repeat of 'Home' for the first time since its original airing in the 4th season. I had remembered everything, for I guess eight years. Seeing it again made me realize what a perfect slice of pure horror it is. How can a one-hour episode become such a horror classic? Its imagery is its artwork. There is an iconic image early on, at night with lightning, with the three brothers silhouetted in darkness with the Home lit up behind them, that sets the standard and the rest of the show delivers. Shadows are used with perfect effect to slowly expose the horror of this family and their Home. Each such "exposure" is an almost physical blow.

Having said that: This show is as vicious an attack on Southern small-town conservatism and traditional values as you will find anywhere; far more so than in the movie "Blue Velvet". From the small town of "Home", and its Sheriffs Andy and Barney, to the boys playing baseball in the field, to the constant theme of resistance to change - to the mother's quote (?) "We knew that change was coming, and now all we can do is to fight against it, to keep living our life our way"... and her quote about "the War of Nothern Aggression" the entire show is a claim that such small-town conservatism has at its core the deepest malformations and dysfunctions possible, that the peaceful surface hides everything dark and twisted imaginable.

I disagree with that theme very strongly. But great art always has a powerful viewpoint. For such a developing sense of horror and dread and fear, the writing and the imagery; the sheer art of this episode; tops most anything you've ever seen on TV. For horror fans only, but it's superlative.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Herrenvolk/Home was..., October 21, 2004

By	Patricia Eation "RoseOne" (Belleville, Mi.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's interesting to note that as gross as Home was, everyone remembers it. The best part was the deleted scene with Mulder and Scully squeezed in a closet and she asks him if it was his flashlight she felt. Mulder is funny saying he's turned on pushing pigs. As for Scully and her "Babe" comments, I didn't see Babe and therefore can't relate.
As for Herrenvolk, I think that was a very pivotal episode in trying to keep account of all the aliens and their purpose. We see the governments involvement and the bounty hunters actions (which for the longest time confused me and I'm still not too sure especially after his/their involvment with the torture of Mulder in the eigth season...but I digress.) I don't think these two episodes should stand alone unless you're having horror night at your house but as a vehicle to show the contrast in the X-Files universe, they're right on the nose (or back of the neck.)