Crampton

by Thomas Ligotti

Link: http://img.pathfinder.gr/clubs/files/...

Genres: Horror, Weird Fiction, Science Fiction, Drama, Crime, Fiction

39 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Thomas Ligotti is a contemporary American horror author and reclusive literary cult figure. His writings, while unique in style, have been noted as major continuations of several literary genres—most prominently Lovecraftian horror—and have overall been described as works of "philosophical horror", often written as philosophical novels with a "darker" undertone which is similar to gothic fiction. The Washington Post called him "the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction"; another critic declared "It's a skilled writer indeed who can suggest a horror so shocking that one is grateful it was kept offstage."

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was never an overly huge fan of The X-Files, but I did watch it semi-regularly during its initial run, and there were a handful of episodes that were truly memorable, rising well above the typical scripted series of its time. Crampton most definitely would have been one of those, had it been filmed. Too bad the makers of the show did not accept unsolicited scripts for fear of being accused of stealing ideas, as this is a 5-star screenplay (or teleplay, I suppose). Judged purely as a reading experience, however, it’s closer to a 4, imo.

All the requisite Ligotti-isms are here: disintegrating town, encroaching unreality, clowns, puppets, dummies, etc., just streamlined for television. The basic gist is that a federal agent is gunned down inside FBI Headquarters, only the gun was a gag gun, and the culprit, once found and tackled inside the building, turns out to be a mannequin. Mulder and Scully find clues that lead them to the small, run-down (and VERY strange) town of Crampton, Ohio. Something’s not right in this town, almost as if everything’s a performance being staged solely for Scully's and Mulder’s benefit.

There are a number of truly creepy scenes here, as well as funny ones, and Ligotti and Trenz have the main characters' mannerisms down pat. It was fun seeing the duo take a peak behind the curtain of reality (literally), and the entire story maintains a fine balance of cosmic horror and TV-style storytelling. Any fan of The X-Files or Ligotti owes it to themselves to check it out: http://img.pathfinder.gr/clubs/files/...

Though the script wasn’t produced, Ligotti was offered a contract to write novels in the X-Files universe, which would have been something, for sure, and I wonder how Ligotti’s reclusive, cult figure-like image would have been altered had he accepted.

4.0 Stars.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this on the Web back when it was an unsolicited X-Files episode written by Thomas Ligotti. It's the best X-Files episode never filmed. Ligotti threw a lot of his own personal visions into the script, but he also managed to capture Scully and Mulder's unique voices in a lot of very funny dialogue. I was extremely impressed, and still picture it in my mind almost like an episode that I've really seen. Brilliant.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Crampton" is an un-produced script for the TV show The X Files which was co-written by Thomas Ligotti. This is the version I read:

http://img.pathfinder.gr/clubs/files/...

I think that the script, if produced, would have been one the best episodes of the TV show.

Themes in Ligotti's fiction exist in this script: metaphysical horror, puppets, ambiguous locations.

[Sam Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crampton is fucking wild because somehow, Ligotti and Trenz cracked a code I didn't even know existed. The longer things go on without anything particularly strange happening, the scarier and more ominous things get-- the opening scene sets up that something is wrong, but the story beats are all just two FBI agents talking to a series of weird characters. When the plot does go all Mulholland Drive, it's merely there to remind you that something horrible is going on behind the scenes. It's hypnotic and bizarre, something that tries to get you to follow its story knowing full well that there's no sense to be made of it.

It's brilliant. I can't imagine it being made into a movie, it would struggle to find an audience and get properly marketed, but it would be a polarizing cult movie that, once properly seeded in the minds of weirdos everywhere, would grow, take hold, and influence. I'm kind of pissed it was released in a semi-limited format, it feels like it should be unleashed and inflicted on the unsuspecting public to twist their minds and souls like pretzels.

Oh, well, at least I got to experience it in this form.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have made for a very unsettling episode of X-Files: perfect for October and a guest director named David Lynch. Read it here if you're interested enough to read a screenplay and use your imagination: http://img.pathfinder.gr/clubs/files/...

[Wendelah1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a script written for The X-Files which was never made (or accepted). It could have been a classic episode.

[Alex Budris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new (sort of) Ligotti book! Time to rejoice! The Durtro Press edition (2003) has been long OOP and the few times I've seen it offered it was prohibitively expensive. This edition from Chroptera Press is issued as a paperback, a signed and numbered hardcover, and there is also a letter state. Something for everyone. Most if not all Ligotti fans will like this one, or at least find it interesting. Personally, it didn't impress me as much as his prose or poetry does, but this screenplay (Crampton was to be originally pitched to the X-Files tv show) is far from shabby. I could visualize the characters, the action, the camera effects, etc... A very solid three stars. I just pre-ordered a copy of another screenplay by this duo - Michigan Basement - and am looking forward to it being released this summer. But I gotta say - More stories, Mr. Ligotti, more stories!

[Signor Mambrino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much what you'd expect. I liked it.

[Zac Hawkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh I did enjoy this, and the sheer silliness of thinking this could ever get produced even at the height of The X-Files popularity is quite endearing. The general audience wasn't ready.

Side stepping a bit here, but Kolchak The Nightstalker had a few episodes that absolutely fit the Ligottian iconography, if nothing else.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best nonexistent X-Files episode EVAR. Time displacement, memory loss, unspeakable horror - lovingly printed, and with an excellent CD to accompany it! Good luck finding a copy. . .

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this had actually been filmed, it would compete with "Home" for best episode.

[Grant Dowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This feels exactly like the script you’d expect if you asked Thomas Ligotti to write an X-Files episode! It includes a strange town, stage magic, clowns, mannikins, a psychic hotline, ventriloquist dummies, and plenty of philosophical pessimism. The script is terrifying, but, at the same time, the humorous banter between Scully and Mulder is spot on. Specific scenes masterfully inform the abstract themes of the episode. Illusion becomes reality when the FBI concocts a fake cover story that spins out of control. The themes of solipsistic idealism—that nothing exists except what is currently conscious—are reiterated when a restaurant eerily shuts its lights off and closes once Scully and Mulder leave the parking lot. At one point a costume is stripped away, revealing no one underneath. There is a telling dialogue where a retired FBI agent, who used to work fraud cases, fondly remembers “[b]eing able to point my finger and say, with all the authority of the Justice Department behind me, ‘Look, this is all a fake, none of this is real, it’s all a con.’” With those words, that agent is more right than perhaps he intends!

[kat!?]

"so what is the truth?"
"the truth is, there is no truth"

written in 1998, so probably set around late season 6 / early season 7 perhaps
- it's very unfortunate that they didn't produce this script because it's very excellent #toME
- existentialism + horror + magic written so well

scenes/moments:
- friday movie nights + takeout is canon
- mulder (star wars fan) vs scully (grease/titanic fan)..this is my planet 9 from outer space vs steel magnolias
- mulder history in the VCU!!
- msr being mistaken for a married couple + newlyweds AGAIN (being asked to take a pic of her and her "husband" and mulder going "why, certainly!" and scully shrugging mulder's arm off - diana angst is something terrible)
- mulderisms: mulder is "paranoid" so he shows up at scully's motel door with a overnight bag (pilot parallel)
- scully cursing
- ALMOST a one bed trope (but scully's sleeping on the bed + mulder on the couch) which doesn't make any sense because mulder is 6ft of just leg and scully i can literally put her in my pocket

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The greatest television episode never made, Thomas Ligotti's spec script for "The X-Files" perhaps pushed the show too far in the direction of "Twin Peaks" (particularly "The Return") to be entirely palatable as part of a mainstream sci-fi horror series. However, there's no denying that Ligotti gets it right here, mixing the deadpan humor and relatability of Mulder and Scully with the surrealist darkness of Ligotti's own universe. The main factors all appear here, almost like a mission statement on Ligotti's fiction itself: clowns, puppets, transformations, mutable identity, and the theory that all the world is literally a stage on which outside powers are playing for their own amusement.

[Christian Molenaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute! It’s funny how easily Mulder and Scully slot into Ligotti’s world, enough to make you wonder if maybe the show is “canon” among his works. No wonder at all why this wasn’t produced, of course: aside from delving deep into Big T’s nihilistic outlook, Crampton just isn’t written like a successful screenplay—the prose is too flatly descriptive and the plot entirely uncinematic, especially by X-Files standards. Ligotti called the project an educational experience, for it taught him he didn’t have the patience to work in film or tv; one can’t help but imagine how things might have turned out differently had this script been picked up��

[Tobin Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blah blah blah, unfilmed X-Files script.

Blah blah blah, reworked movie script.

But the real news here is, this is just an excellent story. No, you can't really read it with out seeing Duchovney as Mulder and Anderson as Scully, but sweep all that aside and just get dragged into the weirdity of the story, and you'll see.

This is probably the most commercial thing I've read with Ligotti's name on it, and yet his nihilistic stamp is all over it as well.

Loved this.

...and it really should be a movie.

[J. Lucian Blackwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent expanded version of the now hard to find infamous X-Files style TV episode story. This current story is expanded into a full film script, and with the X-Files characters and themes removed for a much longer story film script, a new beginning scene is added which comes around full circle covering details of a character's fate, and where he eventually ended up. This film script would be fantastic seen on the film screen in the hands of a competent director.

[John Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good episode of the X Files written by Brandon Trenz (and Thomas Ligotti). If anyone is interested in a unblemished, practically unopened physical copy, e-mail me at allen2012@aol.com

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ligotti fans, I completely get how curiosity turns into obsession.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone please make this into a movie already.

[Martin Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll forever hate that this wasn’t made

[Oli Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A missed opportunity perhaps, but this never-made X-Files script is prime Ligotti. Puppets, nightmares, nihilism, but with that delightful X-Files flavour.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

if this had been made it would have stood out as one of the best episodes of the x-files. surreal and strange with a ghostly ambiance that lets you peek at the darkness behind everything in the end. started off very strong and the voices of mulder and scully were very well done and honestly it kind of pisses me off this script wasn't produced while so many other unworthy ones were. it definitely would have stayed with you long after the credits rolled.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I got the version without the X-Files references, but it was easy to imagine the Agents as Mulder & Scully.