The X-Files (TV Series) Home (1996) User Reviews

There's no place like THIS Home...

[druckent · 10/10 · 15 January 2007]

As a faithful X-Files watcher I'd have to say this episode still sticks out in my mind as one of the most bizarre. This was a stand alone episode - with no impact on the overall Conspiracy Theory theme of the show, but a great thriller nonetheless. The Peacock family sons keep impregnating their own mother to create disfigured & grotesque offspring, she who is deformed herself. The horrific storyline though is that this seems completely normal to this family, which makes the episode so intense. It left me spooked & shaken - so apparently the writers & actors did an excellent job! Every time I hear the song "Wonderful Wonderful" I go right back to that episode.

Awesome Episode!

[milesmark · 10/10 · 12 September 2008]

I live in Southeastern Tennessee and sometimes you encounter people who talk exactly like Ms. Peacock. Every time it happens, I get a chill and it reminds me of this episode. I still think that episode is the most shocking x-files ever made. Playing Johnny Mathis' "Wonderful, Wonderful" during the trip to the sheriff's house was a stroke of genius. Very creepy. I had heard that the idea of the mother being under the bed came from Charlie Chaplin's autobiography. Supposedly, he had met some people who wanted him to meet their family and the mother was under the bed similarly to Ms. Peacock. I have often wondered if other people were as disturbed by this episode as I was.

Its wonderful wonderful

[Sanpaco13 · 10/10 · 16 November 2007]

"Home" has to be the best contribution that Morgan and Wong gave us for this show. Every moment of this episode is disturbing and it is definitely no wonder that this got banned from television. I guess we can just thank our lucky stars that it got past the censors in the first place. And then if you get the DVD you can watch the stuff that got taken out. I think one of the creepiest scenes of any show that I have ever seen is the Peacocks going to the sheriffs house. I love how it is dead silent through out the entire town and how the lack of music accentuates this and also gives more emphasis to the Jimmy Mathis song playing in the car. I also love during this scene how Mulder is so determined to watch TV that he is willing to watch some nature show with a terrible picture rather than just go to sleep. Morgan and Wong seem to have a certain group of actors that they love working with and in this episode the special actor happens to be the Sheriff played by Tucker Smallwood and he does a great job as always. There are many other pluses for the episode. Easily 10/10.

You Can't Keep a Peacock Down!

[ametaphysicalshark · 22 April 2008]

The notorious "Home" is, and forgive me for being clichéd, probably the most disturbing and scariest X-File. I like how, despite its morbid content, it has a sense of humor about it and manages to be thrilling and not TOO hard to watch.

The Peacocks make for some of the most twisted and scariest villains of the entire series. If there's a flaw it's that the makeup on the sons could have been more creative, but the makeup on the mother is spot-on and very creepy. The use of music in this episode is absolutely remarkable.

Almost certainly the most disturbing X-File, "Home" is a well-executed episode with an excellent, complex, and detailed script to aid it. A high point in the series.

10/10

Not somewhere I'd like to call home

[patpatterson · 9/10 · 27 October 2006]

Home is a landmark episode in the history of the X-Files.Its about as hardcore as it gets for the series.It deals with incest,brutal murder and features close-ups of horribly disfigured individuals and a deformed dead human foetus.Indeed it seems as if the writers had put the regular extra-terrestrial themes to one side,and just concentrated on giving their audience a right good scare.That said this episode is a damn good watch and deserves its high rating.Its plot its linear and straightforward which is rare for the X-Files.M&S travel to the town of Home,Pennsylvania,where the body of a dead baby has been dug up exhibiting all kinds of deformities.Suspicion falls on a local family,the Peacocks,who through years of inbreeding and isolation from normal people,have been moving steadily back down the evolutionary ladder.They are deeply suspicious of strangers and violently resistant to any kind of change to their environment.When M&S search their house and are overheard talking about issuing arrest warrants for the Peacock brothers,it sets in motion a deadly chain of events ultimately leading to a battle for survival for our two heroes,after they forcefully storm the Peacock house with the help of a local police officer. So overall Home is a great episode to watch,especially around Halloween,but definitely not for the faint of heart.I give it 9/10.

Terror, violence, thrill and suspense

[SleepTight666 · 10/10 · 28 October 2008]

My first introduction to the X-Files, when I was about 7 or 8 years old.

And boy, did it leave an impact! At that age, it wasn't necessarily a good one. I was disturbed, actually.

But after so many years, I have learned to love it and see it as an absolute masterpiece. Full of terror, violence, thrill and suspense.

I don't think that there has ever been a scarier scene on the X-Files that could beat the death of the sheriff and his wife. What made that scene so scary was the music, I've learned that happy music combined with horrible murder is very disturbing.

And of course, we got the whole incest storyline. The scene with the screaming mom is terrifying. It looks so real, too real actually.

Despite it being the scariest episode, it's also full of clever lines and wonderful interactions between Mulder and Scully.

Yeah, this is hands-down one of my favorite episodes of the show.

FIVE stars

You Can't Go Home Again

[Muldernscully · 8/10 · 27 July 2006]

After the exciting, season-opening Herrenvolk, the MOTW episodes open with a bang with Home. Home is a dark, gritty, violent, disturbing episode that was banned from network TV reruns for a while because of its content. It's a very good episode that shows some excellent directing by Kim Manners. The set design of the Peacock's house couldn't have been better. You felt that someone was going to jump out and grab Mulder and Scully whenever they entered that creepy house. Although there is no paranormal aspect to this episode, the story and characters still grip your attention. The dark story is even interlaced with some light moments between Mulder and Scully to help alleviate the mood a little. Besides the excessive violence which turned me off a little, the only other complaint of this episode is right after Deputy Pastor gets killed by the Peacocks. Scully observes it through binoculars and then, Mulder starts soliloquizing about how the Peacocks have reverted back to animal instincts. His lines are quite out of place for that scene. Spoken later, it would have been all right. If you want a good scare, watch Home alone, at night, around Halloween time. It will deliver.

An amazing episode!

[koalablue_1993 · 10/10 · 11 October 2008]

"Home" is the most disturbing and shocking "X-File" ever made. It is a million times more effective than most Hollywood horror films out there. When the sheriff gets murdered and you hear the song "Wonderful, wonderful" playing in the background you cant help but feel a chill running down your spine. It gives you the creeps. There is some good humor thrown in the mix too. The make- up effects where really good as well. Glenn Morgan and James Wong have written their best story here, another good one by Morgan and Wong is Season One's "Beyond the Sea". I will watch this episode again in a years time probably, until then i will sleep with the lights on!

"They're such good boys." - Mother Peacock

[classicsoncall · 10/10 · 20 June 2017]

I didn't think I'd be alone. This episode was then, and remains now, the most disturbing show I've ever seen, whether it be on TV or in the movies. For some perspective, it edges out what I think is one of the most terrifying endings I've ever seen, in a movie titled "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". When you see those eyes of Mrs. Peacock (Karin Konova) staring out at you from underneath the floorboard, you think to yourself 'how much worse can it get', and ultimately come to realize that that was only the beginning of the horror to come.

And yet, writers Glen Morgan and James Wong managed to inject some humor into the story line, with Scully cracking wise about Mulder's preference to retire to a town like Mayberry, only to have Sheriff Andy Taylor (Tucker Smallwood) show up with an appropriately named deputy, Barney...Paster (Sebastian Spence). I guess the writers were trying to maintain some balance of normalcy here for a demented story about a family of troglodyte farmers suffering severe, multiple birth defects and passing on their genes via the incapacitated mother's compliant reproductive behavior.

Adding to the bizarre nature of the story, the film makers chose to provide the Johnny Mathis hit, 'Wonderful, Wonderful' as part of the scoring for the episode. Not surprisingly, Mathis declined his version of the song to be used in the story because of it's unwholesome subject matter, so the producers had to find someone to do the cover. Oddly, the name of the singer is not mentioned in stories I've read about the episode and remains anonymous. Then again, maybe it's not so odd.

Anyway, the episode garners critical acclaim today for the way it was written and filmed, even though at the time it originally aired it carried a viewer discretion warning, the only X-File to do so. Personally, I think it contained some tour de force writing that makes it memorable for many years after having first seen it, but on the flip side, probably viewing it once every twenty years or so is enough.

If I Had to Pick One!

[Transom32 · 10/10 · 15 January 2014]

If I had to pick one episode to show a group for a special occasion like Halloween or some other informal group movie party from this series, I would choose this one "Home." To balance out the extra creepy and horrific violence and monster-us characters, there is a big helping of Fox Mulder goofing off and spouting nerdy hipster one-liners.

Many film techniques of horror movies is used with great effect with a minimum of makeup, special effects, CGI, etc.

The actress who plays the mother of the clan succeeds in pulling off one of the scariest scenes in the entire series. Surprisingly, she is actually quite attractive in real life.

Spoiler: Queasy types may want to fast forward past the scene where the song "Wonderful, wonderful" is played for the first time.

Not for the weak of heart, but a masterpiece in writing and presentation.

There's something rotten in Mayberry

[DWilliams1089 · 10/10 · 22 June 2010]

"Home" was undoubtedly one of the most notorious episodes of The X-Files for its adult themes and grotesque imagery, but if we look past the controversy we can find a great storyline. Deformed baby fetus is found on sandlot, the only suspects being a family of recluses who the county sheriff refuses to investigate (slightly ironic, when considering his fate). There are less-than-subtle implications right from the beginning that the Peacocks are a clan of Appalachian inbreds, and the identity of their female "captive" is rather predictable. Still this episode wins points for its clever juxtaposition of small-town naivety and the vicious savagery of humanity's dark depths. This binary is illustrated beautifully in chiaroscuro, with vivid sunlight setting up a curious background for the dark and dingy Peacock home. While "Home" may have upped the 'yuck' factor a notch, it was not without substance to boot (a quality that other episodes in the same vain sorely missed). For its brilliant camera work, commendable guest acting and residual impression - still haunting me some thirteen years later - I award "Home" a 10/10

Not for the weak of heart, or stomach

[WKYanks · 9/10 · 3 April 2013]

MRS. PEACOCK: I can tell you don't have no children. Maybe one day you'll learn... the pride... the love... when you know your boy will do anything for his mother.

God, I just can't get that scene out of my head. :-) The sad part is someone had to dream this up and write the script.

Never quite saw anything like this on TV before or after I saw it.

Doesn't it make you sleep well knowing they got away?

The only problem I had with this episode is the ease in which they were able to kill Andy Taylor and his wife. I would have been locked & loaded ready for this bunch. He obviously should have rid the community of this "family" long ago.

A classic, top 10 X-files episode.

Fine, but I don't get all the hype

[cheshire-12907 · 7/10 · 6 February 2023]

I'm writing this review in case there are others who, like me, have heard rumours of the scandalous and gruesome nature of this episode and were wondering if watching it would ruin the whole series for them. Short version: it most likely won't. Aside from the subject matter being a bit gross, I didn't find this episode particularly scary or gory - if you've watched this far you've already seen ones that are far worse. In fact, I didn't find this episode particularly remarkable at all and I find it a little bizarre that it was deemed so controversial. It's got a somewhat derivative plot with predictable deaths and some poorly thought out behaviour on the part of Scully and Mulder. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but I certainly won't be rushing back to rewatch it in the future.

Maybe if it wasn't an X-Files episode...

[fordread · 5/10 · 20 July 2019]

It's so weird to find that this episode is so highly acclaimed.

Before I'm gonna start bashing on this episode, I wanna say one thing: I like the X-Files series a lot, and this could have been an incredible episode, but...

I was screaming at the screen for seeing how stupid every single character was and how cheese was every single line. It's a "Texas chainsaw massacre"-like episode that had pushed forward the story, the action and the tension with stupid character decisions and lazy writing.

At one point I was really hoping for them to actually die (Fox and Dana) just because they where so stupid. The writers took out every rational sense from them, leaving us with just some mindless stupid teenagers that where actually supposed to be the best FBI agents. No other episode has put them in harm's way quite like this one.

To this day, after all the X-Files episodes, I find this one to be in it's own league of worst X-Files episodes. No one should even consider this an X-Files episode. It a B-movie horror alright, but it doesn't represent anything that X-Files stands for other than "a mystery unsolved case".

Lost In Time Animal Brothers

[StuOz · 1 September 2016]

Animal brothers living on a farm house are stuck in the 50s or 60s.

I love the general creepy feeling of the brothers in the farm house and I very much like the way these guys are stuck in the past (with the house, the car, the newspaper).

Mulder's comical reference to Charles Bronson is memorable and the suspense is outstanding.

I actually first saw this hour 20 years after it came out (in 2016) and I must say it stands the test of time very well. This is actually better made than many of the movies we see in theatres today.

However, I can't say that all the episodes in season four were as pleasing as Home.

I Think I May Be Sleeping With the Lights On Tonight

[Al_Scarface_Capone · 10/10 · 27 August 2010]

Oh dear, how do you describe Home? Part of the great shock and power of the episode that I had was going in knowing only that the episode was classic, scary, and rated TV-MA. I plan to write this review without revealing any of the plot. At all. Many other reviews reference the ingenious and very cinematic "Wonderful Wonderful" scene, so I think I will start from there, as that scene really contains some of the best elements of the episode, indeed the entire show.

A brief description of the scene without revealing any plot points:

The villains (normal people really, despite some physical deformities) are going to kill a man and his wife.

Let me start with the acting: the performance on the part of their target is simply magnificent, and in his little screen time he portrays first a man with everything seemingly under control, then a man on the brink of sheer terror. The villains though, even with out any significant spoken lines, are brilliantly cast, seeming to be, as I said normal, in their every action, except for the fact that they are not.

Next, the cinematography: the cinematography in this scene is gorgeous and shocking. It manages to show the violence just enough to scare the heck out of you without going overboard. The camera shows you the perspective of the man and his wife and little else.

The use of music: violent beating deaths to the song "Wonderful Wonderful". Need I say more?

And the atmosphere: I have never been really scared by a film or TV show in my life. This came close. Didn't quite do it, but if you are easily, or I guess averagely scared, you will not sleep. Might I add I watched it at night in a basement, alone? I suggest doing so if you really want to feel the episode.

Finally, I feel I should comment on the violence and the TV-MA rating, as many others have. While the violence is there, and quite bloody and shocking at times, it is not significantly worse, in terms of what is shown, than episodes like Quagmire. The violence really comes from what is implied. Expect not to see blood spray on screen, but prepare to see it in your mind.

Sick, but brilliant

[ga-bsi · 9/10 · 16 July 2009]

The subject of incest is one that is truly disturbing. The practice of it is very rare now a days and can only be found in extremely isolated areas where few people live. In "Home" the corn grows high, the sun is bright and little boys play baseball in corn fields. But, excluded from this perfect, safe life is the Peacock farm. The home of three brothers-and their mother who is suppose to have been dead for ten years; but is really living under her sons' bed. The Peacock family has practiced incest for roughly three generations, and now the gene pool has become so corrupted that it has produced three individuals so grotesque that they look like monsters. The entire atmosphere of the episode is disturbing; from the scene is which their mother is giving birth to her son's child, to the part where the three inbred men beat both the sheriff and his wife to death with hand made baseball bats. What also makes this episode singular and memorable is the fact that is was completely independent of the main plot of The X-Files. There were no extra-terrestrials, and not even a glimpse of The Cigarette Smoking Man. The end of the episode is both unsettling and a clear sign that the time of the Peacock family is over.

It runs in the family.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 30 July 2022]

A group of young boys discoverer remains of an infant, Mulder and Scully attend the small town, and find a rather strange family.

Wrong Turn vibes somewhat from this episode, I was told when I got into X Files, that this episode was one to watch out for, and I can see why, it really is a standout episode.

It's very bleak, it's creepy, it packs a real horror punch. It's not one for the faint hearted.

I read about the controversy that surrounded this when it was first transmitted, and it doesn't surprise me, the content isn't exactly easy viewing, what I would say is that they very successfully pushed the boundaries here.

Scary, fast paced, bleak and full of shocks and thrills, this one hit hard, 9/10.

Another wacky one!

[laloosue · 8/10 · 15 February 2022]

An entertaining one-off episode that turns away from the supernatural and toward the inhumane. Gorey, kitschy, and unique, just the way I prefer my random episodes.

Best of all

[amalapansalem · 9/10 · 16 May 2021]

I personally found this episode outstanding. The part played by Mrs Peacock was very impressive. Playing the 'wonderful wonderful!' song was the the bit I liked the most. It gave me creeps!

The whole episode was a perfect composition of humor and horror according to situations. The inbreeding to propagate their own kind was very disturbing. In a nutshell 'home' is the best episode that I have watched so far...

Scully: In time, we'll catch them. Mulder: I think time already caught them, Scully.

[bombersflyup · 10/10 · 7 February 2018]

Home is about the investigation into the death of a newborn child, buried by a deformed family through generations of inbreeding.

No not wonderful, of a disturbing high quality though. I was really surprised how calm Scully was throughout the episode. Tucker Smallwood's really good in his one time appearance as the sheriff. Sheriff Taylor: Their folks were in a bad car wreck and we suppose they died. When he gets out his gun and looks to see that no bullets have been fired, then puts it back. I'm like, you probably wanna take that with you bud. :) That scene at the house, brutal and of excellent quality. The music playing as they drive along and pull in, is what gives it that added class. It's wonderful, wonderful. Oh so wonderful, my love. Oh no Elvis died. Karin Konoval was quite chilling as the mother. Mrs. Peacock: Boys took me home... sewed me up just like the family learnt in the War of Northern Aggression. Whole time, felt the same as if been making breakfast. I didn't like that Mulder and Scully just let the deputy go all rambo and get himself killed. Also, didn't like Scully doing the "Babe" thing. Home stands on its own in terms of episodes and I can completely understand it being banned.

Freakshow Galore

[aaron_thrash · 9/10 · 21 October 2022]

When I originally watched this when it came out, I was deeply disturbed(and I was a young adult). Just freaked out with the inbred action. Was telling the wife about it and so we decided to watch it again last week. Some points I noticed that apply to today: 1. If you're a Sheriff or police officer in general, you probably should not lock up your firearms and leave them in a completely different room on a different level of the house. They may have been practicing safe storage, but at that last minute, you know they wish they hadn't.

2. Mulder and Scully were not very good backup officers for the gung ho deputy. They casually walked to the house as the deputy was going for it. They should have called for backup.

3. After seeing what the inbreds did to the Sheriff and his wife, they should have called for backup and went in full force. Asking to capture them peacefully so they could ask them questions is silly.

4. How could Scully be such a poor shot? She only got one of them in close quarters.

5. End result: Mulder and Scully really weren't very good agents.

Just watched it...I can see why it was banned from re-airing!

[Meven_Stoffat · 10/10 · 1 March 2007]

If there's gonna be one No-Holds-Barred episode of THE X-FILES, it's definitely gonna be HOME. Banned from Fox in 1996 after it's first airing, it was named as the most notorious X-files episode ever.

The episode begins in Pennsylvania, where a woman is giving birth to her fourth child, which gets buried. Then we skip to a group of kids playing baseball the day after, and one of the kids steps in the exact spot where this baby was buried. Mulder and Scully are shown the baby, and are introduced to a family called the Peacocks. This family aren't the conventional family, they're cold-blooded killers. They kill one of the FBI agents on M&S's team. Now, it's up to M&S to find them.

HOME is by far the best episode in the series. The blood is well done, and it is pretty scary. Not for the squeamish, HOME is a truly awesome episode.

Awe-Shocking but Absolutely Ridiculous Episode

[jonassladen · 6/10 · 25 January 2021]

I don't know where to begin. Why didn't Mulder and Scully wait to get a backup team - as well as flood lights - out to the Peacock house before going in to take them all safely?

Also a full forensic team would have been required by any investigators anywhere before they tore the house apart.

Yeah, there are disturbed people out there but this was a Major Crime Scene. They could have still made this story just as gory and shocking as ever but acted like true FBI agents in the process.

This was the most ridiculous episode.

Oh, what wonderful incest

[tieman64 · 16 September 2008]

This episode is noteworthy for being banned from TV, due to its disgusting subject matter. The plot centres around an elderly woman who lives under the floorboards of a spooky house. She emerges only occasionally to mate with her grotesque sons, thereby producing ugly, inbred monsters.

Every season of the X files has at least 4 or 5 classic episodes. Episodes of such artistic quality that they can easily hold their own against most cinema releases.

"Home" isn't one of those episodes, but it contains several very memorable and cinematic sequences. The most famous is the "Wonderful! Wonderful!" sequence, which occurs at the middle of the episode.

During this sequence, a gang of deformed, inbred hillbillies, drive an open-top Cadillac whilst listening to Jonny Mathis' "Wonderful! Wonderful!" on the car radio. They then go on a horrific night time killing spree, breaking into homes and murdering everyone inside.

The sequence feels like something Tarantino or the Coens would direct, the music underscoring the violence, the cinematography carefully obscuring the faces of the inbred monsters. Like the famous "there's something on the wing!" scene from the Twilight Zone series, this sequence is simultaneously scary, absurd, violent and funny.