Jun 18, 2026 · 2 hr 5 min · 12 segments
What began as a spec script for *The X-Files* evolved into one of horror's most enduring modern franchises. By stripping away the traditional slasher formula and replacing the killer with fate itself…
a sacrifice it was but i purposely avoided this entire franchise for years uh but i'm not gonna lie i was curious so very early on this made its way to my rogues gallery future list so let's get to work on our case file as always we'll begin with causative trauma.
While flying home to Kentucky, screenwriter Jeffrey Redick read a story about a woman whose mother urged her not to take a scheduled flight because she had a bad feeling.
The woman changed flights and the original plane crashed.
Reddick wondered, what if she was supposed to die on that flight?
Has anything ever happened to you? Like, have you ever had, I mean, obviously not like maybe anything that dramatic, but just a situation where you just got a weird feeling about something? This isn't my story.
This was one of my friends.
And I've told this story on another podcast.
So I apologize if you've already heard this, but it has a brand new epilogue.
Yeah.
And he's just having the time of his life weaving around the road, driving into these piles of leaves.
And then there's just a massive one up ahead.
And he's like, Oh baby, here we go.
Accelerates towards it.
And at the last second, he just has this feeling.
And the way he described it was as if some other force was, pulled his hands so that he steered away from the pile of leaves.
And then as he passes it, he looks in his rear view mirror and a child sits up out of the pile.
They had just been playing in there and were hiding in there.
In a split second, the entire trajectory of his life changed.
And the way he told the story was as if like, it wasn't even me.
It was like some other force was just like, Jesus took the wheel.
Like, no. Yeah.
Okay.
So here's the additional information that I only recently have come across.
The number of times I see a comment somewhere about, oh, back in the day, so-and-so, someone I knew, knew someone who knew someone who, and it's some version of this same story.
And so I guess the more charitable explanation is, this is maybe a more common thing than I realized, but I think the more likely explanation is, is that this is some kind of fucking urban legend.
a sacrifice it was but i purposely avoided this entire franchise for years uh but i'm not gonna lie i was curious so very early on this made its way to my rogues gallery future list so let's get to work on our case file as always we'll begin with causative trauma.
While flying home to Kentucky, screenwriter Jeffrey Redick read a story about a woman whose mother urged her not to take a scheduled flight because she had a bad feeling.
The woman changed flights and the original plane crashed.
Reddick wondered, what if she was supposed to die on that flight?
Has anything ever happened to you? Like, have you ever had, I mean, obviously not like maybe anything that dramatic, but just a situation where you just got a weird feeling about something? This isn't my story.
This was one of my friends.
And I've told this story on another podcast.
So I apologize if you've already heard this, but it has a brand new epilogue.
Yeah.
And he's just having the time of his life weaving around the road, driving into these piles of leaves.
And then there's just a massive one up ahead.
And he's like, Oh baby, here we go.
Accelerates towards it.
And at the last second, he just has this feeling.
And the way he described it was as if some other force was, pulled his hands so that he steered away from the pile of leaves.
And then as he passes it, he looks in his rear view mirror and a child sits up out of the pile.
They had just been playing in there and were hiding in there.
In a split second, the entire trajectory of his life changed.
And the way he told the story was as if like, it wasn't even me.
It was like some other force was just like, Jesus took the wheel.
Like, no. Yeah.
Okay.
So here's the additional information that I only recently have come across.
The number of times I see a comment somewhere about, oh, back in the day, so-and-so, someone I knew, knew someone who knew someone who, and it's some version of this same story.
And so I guess the more charitable explanation is, this is maybe a more common thing than I realized, but I think the more likely explanation is, is that this is some kind of fucking urban legend.
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