"Shapes", an episode of The X-Files from April 1, 1994, is another one to feature a familiar face from Twin Peaks. This time it's Michael Horse who, like Don Davis before him, basically plays the same character he did on Twin Peaks, only now it's in a werewolf story. Not a bad one but this is not generally considered The X-Files' finest hour.
Mulder and Scully go to investigate some killings on a Native American reservation. A naked man is shot by a rancher who claims to have seen not a man but a vicious animal. It turns out to be part of a pattern tied into ancient legends of the manitou.
The episode's Wikipedia entry claims it was criticised for portraying a manitou as essentially a werewolf. The current Wikipedia page for manitou is very short, It begins by describing the manitou as "the fundamental life force in the theologies of the Algonquian peoples." If you check the editing history of the page, you find the word was once considered to have more variant meanings among the Algonquian people. In 2013, the entry said, "Manitou are the spirit beings of Algonquian groups of Native Americans. Manitou is similar to the East Asian qi, the Hindu Brahman or the Japanese kami." There's no citation for this reference while the new version of the entry cites only a book published in 2001.
It's fun watching Mulder and Scully pitted against a werewolf. As usual in pre-cgi movies and television, the werewolf looks more like a gorilla so you rarely get a good look at it. Actually, I still don't feel like anyone's done a proper werewolf in a movie. I do like the one in Skyrim quite a bit.
The X-Files is available on Disney+/Hulu.
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