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

One of the goriest episodes

[SleepTight666 · 8/10 · 6 November 2008]

One of the goriest episodes of not only Season 4, but of the entire series.

Some really awesome death scenes in this one. They are pretty much the highlight of the episode. My favorite was probably the woman who gets acid pored onto her face, and it starts melting. Really gross but neat-looking.

Besides the very awesome death scenes, the episode has an OK script. But is mostly saved by the creepy atmosphere and doomed feeling all the victims went through. I liked the little plot twists and the witch-story quite a lot.

I'm giving this episode THREE stars, there's not much to say. It reminds me a little bit of Season 2's 'Die Hand Die Verletzt' which is a very good thing.

Black magic + plastic surgery = BAD

[bigblue123 · 8/10 · 3 September 2010]

Season 4 contains some great episodes notably 'Herrenvolk', 'Home' and 'Paper Hearts'. But 'Sanguinarium' is also worth a special mention as it blends the tension of 'Home' and the mystery of 'Paper Hearts'.

Black magic is at the centre of this episode and involves a plastic surgeon, Jack Franklin, who is prolonging his own life through the sacrifice of patients about to undergo, or undergoing, plastic surgery.

This episode has everything one could want from an X-File. It has a lot of tension and mystery (its not clear what is going on until about halfway through the episode and even then it's not fully clear!) and a very creepy atmosphere. There is also a lot more gore than is usual in an X-Files episode (some of the scenes where the patients are killed are very difficult to watch).

The acting is good and there is a wonderfully creepy performance by Richard Beymer as Dr. Jack Franklin.

I would give this episode 8 out of 10.

"I think this patient is finished."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 21 June 2017]

It's hard to get a fix on who the real bad guy was in this episode, as a nurse practicing witchcraft appeared to be getting some measure of personal revenge against unscrupulous doctors performing cosmetic surgery at exorbitant rates. And then the story throws in some unethical practices from ten years prior to really confuse the issue. The script seemed to be going in different directions, and even some of the players appeared to switch character in midstream, like Dr. Shannon (Arlene Mazzerole), who at the outset was gung ho for as much throughput as possible by the medical staff, but then became cooperative with Scully and Mulder when the heat turned up during their investigation.

One thing for certain, those faint of heart need not hang around for some of the gorier scenes, like the blood filled bathtub surprise or the doctor taking a scalpel to his own face for a little cosmetic surgery. That scene of Dr. Franklin (Richard Beymer) levitating over his bed seemed to come out of nowhere with no connection to the story, so all in all, the episode was a genuine head scratcher for this viewer.

But the story does have it's positive side if one is inclined to learn something new. The term 'pica' is described by Scully as a craving for nonfood objects, and if you're afflicted by allotriophagy be careful, you might vomit up some objects you can hurt yourself with. The writers even got creative with the title of the episode here, as sanguinarium sounds like it might come from 'sangre', the Spanish word for blood, although it also refers to an underground network for those inclined to a vampyric lifestyle. With all that blood around, the story probably could have thrown in a vampire or two without even skipping a (heart) beat.

She can't tell them anything. ... because she doesn't know anything.

[bombersflyup · 7/10 · 11 September 2021]

Sanguinarium is about the investigation into a death of a patient butchered, undergoing cosmetic surgery.

It's a solid episode, with a strong premise and gruesome deaths, but the execution as a whole doesn't all work. The nurse is there to protect them, yet she doesn't. She doesn't even look to see if they're themselves and it looks like she's even knowingly ignoring. Mulder and Scully also seem to have a bit of tension and little to do but discuss the pentagrams and the pills being taken. Nor do they find a way to stop this guy or solve much. More so the nurse though, she makes no sense.

Chillingly plays into old fears of medical butchery in a story that combines them with more fantastical themes to create a memorable little shocker that still holds up!

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 9/10 · 18 July 2018]

We have all been afraid of hospitals and of possibly suffering doctor malpractice at some point in our lives, and like with many of its episodes that played around with common fears as part of the story, this show always seemed to know just how to dial them up to eleven! Among the many and awesome "monster of the week" stories, the occult-themed ones always shined in the fairly stark and grounded world of the show, perhaps because it was the closest it could get to outright fantasy without overdoing it and turning into something silly, and to some this one be be silly but I love it, I think it's easily one of the scariest, most unnerving episodes they ever put out. There's something that's deeply disturbing about seeing the do no harm oath being violated in such a visceral and brutal way - lipo, laser, acid, the scenes are all equally ghastly but I personally wouldn't say it's the gore that holds the episode together, I think it's the unsettling notion of doctors inexplicably turning on their helpless patients that helps to make it a compelling watch as you gradually come to understand why, sort of! In any case to me the bloody nature of the story helps to give it an extra atmosphere of danger and edge, nothing is what it seems in this particular plastic surgery where the rich go under the knife, and if you've never seen it before the plot does a good job of misdirecting you as to who's behind all the bloodshed. It seems like the board of the clinic are some kind of cabal, or that the snaggle-toothed nurse is doing it, but it turns out that she was only trying to protect the chosen sacrificial victims from the truly evil one, a warlock of sorts who's been unnaturally prolonging his life and vitality with a blood sacrifice every ten years, and for all anyone knows has already been doing so for a very long time. The merciless Dr. Franklin seems to hold all the cards and is always one step ahead of our agents and in the end is one of the few fiends who ever manage to outsmart them and escape to carry on with his murderous quest for eternal youth, maybe forever... Doc Franklin is an awesome one-shot villain and is the real highlight of the episode for me, his final line right at the end is creepy and ominous and ends it on a very satisfying note. So again I love this macabre X-Files romp of tortured patients and satanic doctors, I find it scary, compellingly dark, thrilling and brutal and it features a bad guy who actually wins. To me it was always a most excellent episode. x

Everyone wants to be beautiful...

[DWilliams1089 · 6/10 · 9 September 2010]

"Sanguinarium" is an engrossing (emphasis on gross!) albeit less-than-awe-inspiring episode that unfortunately fails to deliver much of anything noteworthy besides gratuitous gore. Which is a shame, given the presence of Twin Peaks' Richard Beymer, who is all but wasted in his thankless role as the evil Dr. Franklyn.

The plot begins simply enough: doctors in a prestigious plastic surgery unit are being driven to murder their patients in grisly manners. Stranger yet are the residual pentagrams left behind at the crime scenes. When our two agents show up to investigate, Mulder inevitably suspects the involvement of witchcraft.

The script was the first and only written by Mayhew and Mayhew, yet the unevenness of the plot just screams committee writing. Supposedly a good number of Wiccans were put off by their misinformed representation in this episode. The black magic that Mulder touches upon isn't wholly explained, and the character of Nurse Waite (O-Lan Jones) is equally confusing. How does she aim to protect patients by scarring them with leeches? Why the elaborate bloodbath in Franklyn's home? If the goal was to make her the "good" witch I feel like the mark was missed. Also, how was Franklyn able to manipulate the other doctors through their medication?

I often lamented The X-Files for not coming up with more occult episodes. This one quenched my thirst but did not leave a lasting impression. A creepy premise and decent guest acting save this one from the x-file toilet, but the lack of substance in favor of cheap thrills do not render this one of the show's greater efforts. If you like gruesome deaths however, "Sanguinarium" is for you. For those faint of heart, look elsewhere.

6/10

I think this patient is finished.

[Sanpaco13 · 9/10 · 29 April 2008]

This episode is the perfect example of why I plan to avoid plastic surgery of any shape or form (except maybe laser eye surgery if that counts) in my life. The doctor at the beginning reminds me of this little girl on an episode of 20/20 I saw a long time ago about obsessive compulsive disorders. She would wash her hands so much they would bleed. I love the last clip in the teaser. "I think this patient is finished." Ha yeah! Finished as in dead! Not for the faint of heart that's for sure. A plastic surgery clinic goes through a number of incidents of doctors carrying out the wrong treatments on the wrong patients or overdoing what they are supposed to. The two that stick out in my mind are the liposuction at the beginning and the laser burning a hole through the lady's head. I think the scariest thing about this episode for me is to see just how dangerous and destructive some of those tools are. I mean it takes him seconds to burn that hole. That is scary. I never quite understood the bad guy in this episode. Basically the bad doctor is some kind of demon who can change his skin. That's basically what I get out of it. But anyway the episode is very creepy. 9 out of 10.

Why don't you put out an APB for someone riding a broom and wearing a tall black hat?

[Muldernscully · 6/10 · 8 August 2006]

If you have a sensitive stomach, if you faint at the sight of blood, then Sanguinarium is not for you. I am both of those things. However, I was able to make it through the episode without throwing up and saw a decent episode in between. However, it is quite difficult for me to get through the entire episode because of the grossness factor. The gore might be a turn-on for a lot of people though.

Sanguinarium did have some cool shots though. I liked the broom by the door of the lady's house(and Mulder's subsequent comment about it), the levitating doctor, and when the lady doctor got stabbed by the surgical instruments.

One shot that bugged me, was when Mulder and Scully enter Dr. Franklyn's house toward the end. It appears to be raining outside, yet you hear the sound of sprinklers, but Mulder and Scully don't have a drop of water on them. So is it sprinklers or rain?

I find it hard to believe that the ASU wouldn't be shut down after the second death, maybe even the first, until the investigation was complete.

I like the misdirection of the episode. They make it appear like all the doctors are in on the witchcraft. But really, they are just trying to cover up the deaths from 10 years ago, which were witchcraft related but they don't know that.

Sanguinarium is a decent episode, but with a high gore factor which hindered me from enjoying it more, but it may be right up your alley.

The stuff of nightmares.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 31 July 2022]

When patients at a renowned cosmetic surgery start dying, Mulder and Scully investigate alleged black magic.

God help anyone who watches this prior to having any kind of surgery or hospital visit, this is enough to put you off for life, it's genuinely one of the most disturbing episodes of all.

Gore, heaps of it, more gore than I think I've seen in any previous episode, levels approaching 18 rated horror movies. The gore isn't just there to shock, it's there for a reason.

It's an exciting, high tempo episode, it moves at pace, I assure you there won't be a single moment where you're bored.

Very well acted and produced, if looks incredibly sharp, at the time some of those special effects would have been top notch, I'm reviewing this almost thirty years on, and they still look pretty good.

That ending, wow that's chilling. I quite like when it's a little ambiguous, it certainly was that.

I actually can't find any faults here, this one had me breathless, 10/10.

Remind me not to get Plastic Surgery any time soon...

[Meven_Stoffat · 6/10 · 29 September 2009]

I'm a fan of the X Files, I started following it at Season 7 in its airtime and followed it to the very end. In 2007 I rented all the seasons one by one and watched every episode. Of all the episodes, this is the most disturbing one I've ever seen.

Basically this is an episode about a hospital where plastic surgery goes horribly wrong. It begins with a kick to the teeth- the epic "liposuction" scene. Lots of gross stuff happens- A man cuts off his own face, a woman pukes up needles, etc. I love gore, but hell, this episode disturbed me in every way possible! In short, I never get disturbed, but this episode was extremely disturbing. I probably wouldn't watch it again because of how gross and disturbing it was. But it is a worthy episode in the series and worth watching at least once.

Clarity

[rosie_posie182 · 8/10 · 24 February 2020]

So, some reviewers seem confused as to the storyline here. Though I'll admit they did a heck of a job with misdirection, I thought the villain was pretty clear by the end. Patients are dying in ridiculously graphic and horrific ways, as their plastic surgery doctors go rogue and fatally mutilate them. None of them seem to have much recollection or motivation as to why this is occurring. A nurse, played by the wonderfully freaky O-Lan Jones, seems suss af, happily placing pentagrams about the surgery suites and on patients. The other clinic doctors are also suspicious, chatting away in a room with a pentagram table about some sort of ominous cover-up. There's gore galore, as mentioned by other reviewers, and M&S pursue a witchcraft and occult line of reasoning due to the ritualistic symbols and some other bits and pieces. Turns out the lead doctor, Jack Franklin, has been using black magic and blood sacrifice to trade for a new, beautiful face every ten years. The patients killed have their birthdates correspond to some witchy sabbath high holidays and are payment for this fancy face upgrade. The nurse, also Wiccan, attempts to protect patients from him, albeit in rather sinister-looking ways, but his magic is too strong and she ends up dead as well. The other doctors, seemingly in on it, were instead concerned about the occurrence of similar patient deaths 10 years before. These were also part of Franklin's deal, but they were unaware, and just covering their backs, lest they end up with a giant malpractice lawsuit. Franklin is one of the few villains that manages to escape M&S, but given that he can tear his own face off and start anew, you might give them a break. I especially liked the touch of Mulder constantly checking his face throughout the episode, as if he were in need of surgery. Decent ep, I liked it, but thought others might need some clarity.

Brutally Schlocky

[frankelee · 4/10 · 4 August 2023]

A Lovecraftian doctor villain enacts a bizarrely overcomplicated plot to kill people.

I think the writers knew this was embarrassing schlock for adolescents sitting at home on a Friday night hoping to be scared, and leaned into not caring or trying. The initial part of the episode sets up the ruling cabal of doctors and administrators as being shady, and continues to present them that way, but then for some reason this is a sham (not a red herring by the way for any non-writers thinking maybe this qualifies as misdirection) and actually its just one doctor who's made sure to schedule enough patients with the right birthday so that he may complete his evil ritual.

Really when you consider how powerful this guy is, it's kind of hard to believe he could fail, he's like a tenth level sorcerer, he can transport knives into anyone with a thought, levitate, live forever, and also his hand-eye coordination and reaction times are Spider-Man-esque. That nurse burst out of a pool of blood with the knife ready and he still caught her by the wrist. And then did it again 30 seconds later when she attacked him from behind. I don't care how athletic you are, been practicing Karate for the last decade, you wouldn't have caught that knife, except right in the chest. Mulder and Scully are just basically there to watch, they can't stop this guy.

Overall this was a throw whatever at the wall and see what sticks monster of the week episode, it lacked the hunger to be good that you got in season 1, or the competency you got in season 3. The story was muddled, lacked action, and was poorly executed on the screen.

mistake a bear belly for a bald head

[paulONeil68 · 10/10 · 11 September 2023]

Yet again a greats story with scully being a doubter and only believing in the science. This a great show because the reality is that your life is in their hands and all for the price of beauty. Moulder once again gets out his foil hat and delves deep into the world of witchcraft looking for the clues, that started behind door number 3. I think the most frustrating part of a review is that IMDB want you to plant 600 words when sometimes less is more, but sadly there is not too much we can do about that is there????????. Brilliant show watching for the 50th time, it ever gets old. Big thumbs up from me.

More Grotesque than Grotesque...

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 13 February 2022]

Despite Gillian Anderson's complaints about the gore factor of this episode, it is one of the best.

You just have to slide and give yourself a little bit of belief suspension... before you ingest any milk of magnesia, or other upset stomach suspension fluid.

"What comes out generally has to go in"

This also shines a light on the entire cosmetic surgery profession. We have seen results of cosmetic surgery in real life, with real people that we know about, where it has backfired spectacularly. There is a point where something that is beneficial when done frugally becomes detrimental when performed unnecessarily and repeatedly. And so it is relatively appropriate to take a documentary style episode about this kind of surgical addiction and stick it into the X-Files as horror- because ultimately, what people do to each other, or actually what they have their doctors do to them, can be more frightening than anything that we have ever seen done by Freddy Kruger.

Because how many "kidney" operations do you really need?

I could not figure out what was actually going on until they reveal it with utter finally. And reveal it they did, just like in the film 'beneath the planet of the apes', where they chant: "let us reveal our inner selves to our God".

I won't get into too much detail, but something very similar to what happens in that scene from that movie, happens in this episode.

And we are chasing the wrong bad guy when this episode starts. We are totally focused upon one person, but when you go back and watch the episode again you realize, that person really did not do anything to merit being scrutinized as the bad guy. Or bad woman. But we were tricked, beautifully and cleverly tricked.

By Richard Beymer from West Side Story nonetheless! Whoda Thunk?

Beauty comes at great cost.

[devonbrown-90649 · 9/10 · 11 May 2023]

The anatganoist on this episode was one of favourites and one of the most powerful in x files history. How he uses his victims to live forever is amazing.

I never suspected the board member to be the villain, I always thought it was the strange lady. Turns out she was trying to save future patients by drawing pentagrams on them and laying in a bathtub of blood, I assume for her protection from his powerful magic.

Mulder really did his research on this case and cracked the pentagram code just in time. He really showed his brilliance on this one. Scully was just lagging behind him trying to use science to explain how surgical tools ended up in someone's intestines.

Overall a great episode.

Excelsis Dei retread

[xbatgirl-30029 · 3/10 · 5 June 2022]

I get that many seem to like this but it doesn't work for me. First off, I felt like the X Files had already done this plot line and since the episode wasn't holding my interest enough, I started scrolling through my phone to identify it. Turns out it was Excelsis Dei, where the creepy happenings take place in a nursing home. That time an orderly was mistakenly suspected by Mulder, instead of a nurse. And also on that episode, it was the orderly who was trying to protect, not harm, the patients. I see from reviews some didn't love that one, so maybe the producers wanted to try again? But also since I lived through the late 70s and into the Satanic Panic 80s, I think I've seen plenty of plots where the board/CEO/respected elders turn out to be secretly devil worshippers. Put those together and I figured this out almost immediately.

I still do love a good Satanic conspiracy plot, but here the action was so rushed, the sets so cheap, the actors so cheesily generic, except the one playing the nurse. In her case, that actress has played many creepy or unhinged characters yet here she seemed sadly wasted. This plays like a very poorly written filler episode, so then the director splashed tons of blood everywhere to make up for it and distract from the plot. I guess it worked.

About the only good part is when Scully knocks on Mulder's door, not once but twice, and he is caught studying his face in the mirror wondering if he could use plastic surgery.