I love the x-files... the show, the movies, the actors/characters. I am a HUGE fan and would rate any other episode anywhere between an 8-10. However, as a Romanian, this episode makes me SO MAD, because it perpetuates stereotypes about Romania that are not even based on semi- facts.
First of all people who are very superstitious in Romania are so because they are VERY very old school Orthodox Christian, not pagan. This whole American fascination with "Dracula" (who was NOT a blood sucking vampire, just an evil ruler who used to kill many people), turned into "Romanians believe in exorcisms and evil spirits of the Old Religion"... there is no OLD RELIGION Romanians believe in, unless you are talking about Orthodox Christianity. MUCH more likely than an exorcism, an "old school" superstitious Romanian would call in the local priest to do some ritual cleansing of the home by PRAYING away the spirits in every room with a dash of holy water and a cross or icon placed in each room, not with weird voodoo rituals involving dead chickens...
Second of all, the Calusari are DANCE groups!! Cal means horse, and Calusari are "horse-men/riders" who dance away evil spirits during Spring Harvest rituals. They do not chant or make potions, they DANCE! Do any search on google images and you will see Calusari dressed in traditional Romanian costumes dancing away--they are known for their HUGE high jumps that makes it seem as if they are flying. Needless to say they do not huddle in back rooms performing exorcisms and making up concoctions of strange herbs to cure people. Also they are usually young nimble men (who can jump high!) not old men with long beards who basically look like Orthodox Jews with their tall black hats and black suits... No old Romanian man dressed in Romanian folk clothes looks like the "Calusari" in this episode... These characters were just made to look like Orthodox Jews for some bizarre reason (another wonderful stereotype perpetuated by this episode-...) Further, when they perform this dance in Romania now, it's because folk dance is a tradition at Spring festivals, not because people actually believe the dance cures them of "evil"...
Third of all, none of these people looked like they were or spoke Romanian! I am fluent and I struggled to understand what they were saying, once in a while I would catch phrases and words, horribly pronounced. But I am almost 100% positive that as the men were chanting and supposedly let out spirits they were not speaking Romanian, unless they were doing it backwards and in pig-Latin.
Despite my love of everything X-files, I am rating this episode a "1" for the mess it made of understanding anything related to any Romanian tradition... I honestly could not even pay attention to the story line or evaluate if it was good or bad because at every turn in the episode there was another element that just made me so mad about how they were portraying Romania or its traditions :/
First of all people who are very superstitious in Romania are so because they are VERY very old school Orthodox Christian, not pagan. This whole American fascination with "Dracula" (who was NOT a blood sucking vampire, just an evil ruler who used to kill many people), turned into "Romanians believe in exorcisms and evil spirits of the Old Religion"... there is no OLD RELIGION Romanians believe in, unless you are talking about Orthodox Christianity. MUCH more likely than an exorcism, an "old school" superstitious Romanian would call in the local priest to do some ritual cleansing of the home by PRAYING away the spirits in every room with a dash of holy water and a cross or icon placed in each room, not with weird voodoo rituals involving dead chickens...
Second of all, the Calusari are DANCE groups!! Cal means horse, and Calusari are "horse-men/riders" who dance away evil spirits during Spring Harvest rituals. They do not chant or make potions, they DANCE! Do any search on google images and you will see Calusari dressed in traditional Romanian costumes dancing away--they are known for their HUGE high jumps that makes it seem as if they are flying. Needless to say they do not huddle in back rooms performing exorcisms and making up concoctions of strange herbs to cure people. Also they are usually young nimble men (who can jump high!) not old men with long beards who basically look like Orthodox Jews with their tall black hats and black suits... No old Romanian man dressed in Romanian folk clothes looks like the "Calusari" in this episode... These characters were just made to look like Orthodox Jews for some bizarre reason (another wonderful stereotype perpetuated by this episode-...) Further, when they perform this dance in Romania now, it's because folk dance is a tradition at Spring festivals, not because people actually believe the dance cures them of "evil"...
Third of all, none of these people looked like they were or spoke Romanian! I am fluent and I struggled to understand what they were saying, once in a while I would catch phrases and words, horribly pronounced. But I am almost 100% positive that as the men were chanting and supposedly let out spirits they were not speaking Romanian, unless they were doing it backwards and in pig-Latin.
Despite my love of everything X-files, I am rating this episode a "1" for the mess it made of understanding anything related to any Romanian tradition... I honestly could not even pay attention to the story line or evaluate if it was good or bad because at every turn in the episode there was another element that just made me so mad about how they were portraying Romania or its traditions :/