X-Files: Why Irresistible’s Donnie Pfaster Was The Show’s Creepiest Villain

The X-Files featured lots of horrifying monsters, but it was serial killer Donnie Pfaster in “Irresistible” that proved to be the creepiest villain. In most of its 200-plus episodes, The X-Files leads Mulder and Scully face off against a threat that’s alien, supernatural or paranormal. While those threats are indeed scary and menacing, at the same time, they’re all things that – at least as far as society at large is aware – don’t actually exist in real life.

Viewers can certainly imagine how frightened they would be if they were to encounter such a monster or being, but they know deep down that it won’t be anything they ever have to worry about. Unfortunately, unlike giant worm creatures and liver-eating immortal mutants, serial killers are a very real, and very human, type of monster. Sure, pop culture exaggerates just how many there are, but the amount of true crime documentaries available makes it quite clear that any person has well above a non-zero chance of ending up a victim.

In the season 2 X-Files episode “Irresistible,” The X-Files ditched its usual paranormal trappings to put the spotlight on a monster that could actually exist. Here’s why Donnie Pfaster is creepier than any of the creatures Mulder and Scully encountered.

X-Files: Why Irresistible’s Donnie Pfaster Was The Creepiest Villain

As introduced in “Irresistible,” Donnie Pfaster is a serial killer and “death fetishist,” which in this case is meant to be code for necrophiliac. FOX didn’t want The X-Files to use that word on the air, so Chris Carter came up with death fetishist as a compromise. He worked at a funeral home in Minneapolis, but was eventually fired after his disgusting tendencies were discovered. He was especially obsessed with women’s hair and nails, as well as overall cleanliness. After Mulder and Scully begin working the case, Pfaster becomes fascinated with Scully, eventually kidnapping and traumatizing her. Thankfully, Mulder arrives before something worse can happen, and Pfaster is sent to prison.

While many of the non-human monsters Mulder and Scully encountered were killing people for the sake of their own survival, or because it was in their natural programming, Pfaster had no such excuse. Like many serial killers, Pfaster was a psychopath and sociopath of the highest order, and did what he did to women for his own personal enjoyment. That, coupled with the fact that a man like Pfaster could very well be stalking any real life neighborhood at any given moment, makes him an infinitely creepier and unsettling antagonist than any other X-Files villain. The Flukeman isn’t likely to appear in reality any time soon, but someone just like Pfaster could conceivably be a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or family member, hiding their horrific secret life in plain sight.

It’s worth noting though that The X-Files made the awful decision to undercut Pfaster’s characterization during his second appearance, in season 7’s “Orison.” While Scully had seen what appeared to be Pfaster transforming into a demonic visage during “Irresistible,” that wasn’t intended to be taken literally, as Chris Carter had based it on real reports of abductees hallucinating their captors as changing form. In “Orison,” Pfaster is explicitly retconned into an actual demon, effectively destroying all the realistic aspects that made him terrifying in the first place, and turning him into just another supernatural monster.

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