The celebrated television series ended six years ago and it has been nine years since the last feature film. Surely even the most dedicated X-Files addict must have long given up any hope of getting another fix? Not only have Agents Mulder and Scully returned to the big screen, but director/co-writer and series creator Chris Carter has come up with a taut, atmospheric thriller that does not require intimate knowledge of what went before. The X-Files: I Want to Believe works very well indeed as a stand-alone movie.

(Indeed, Gillian Anderson, who reprises her role as Dana Scully, admitted to American television talk show host Jay Leno that she had forgotten her character had had a baby until she read Carter's ingenious screenplay).

Scully is now a surgeon while David Duchovny's Fox Mulder has left the FBI under something of a cloud. But Scully persuades him to return to help in a crucial investigation of the disappearance of an agent.
Time is running out and the FBI has been forced to use the services of alleged psychic and convicted paedophile Father Joe (a wild-haired Billy Connolly).

Carter racks up strong suspense and keeping you guessing as Mulder and Scully search for the truth which, as always, is out there.

The plot is complex and, ultimately, very satisfying. Duchovny and Anderson recreate their old relationship in a fascinating new form helping to make the film as much character as plot led, while icy landscapes add an extra shiver to an already chilling narrative.