On the trail of a murderous creature Mulder believes is a werewolf, he and Scully are followed by a camera crew from TV show Cops.

It's difficult to tell whether this is a spoof episode of Cops or The X-Files, but it certainly makes things a bit more interesting. It's good fun to see Mulder grinning at the camera and seizing his opportunity to make the world at large aware of paranormal phenomena and that someone in the FBI is trying to protect them from them. Scully's efforts to escape the cameras are also particularly funny.

The hand-held camera footage provides a level of realism that the show doesn't normally have and brings the viewer closer to the action. Although the end sequence is very reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, it doesn't harm the overall effect of scariness that overpowers the humour. The concept of some kind of entity killing by making a person's worst fears come alive is particularly creepy, as we are all afraid of something, and as Mulder eventually realizes, it's not something he can catch or even shoot at.

Aside from this, there's good use made of the Cops format through the blotting out of people's faces, bleeped out swearing, even Mulder's in a great moment, and the 'real-life' people encountered by our two agents. The bickering gay couple are a real treat and one of the funniest things The X-Files has ever come up with. And it's only really in a show like this that they could get away with it. Towards the end, the shooting technique does get rather wearing, but it's still an effective move into something that little bit different, and overall it works pretty well.

****

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