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Eugene Tooms: A Perfect Monster?
Few monsters are as chilling as Eugene Victor Tooms. Introduced in the third episode of the first season of The X-Files (entitled Squeeze), Tooms returned in episode twenty-one as the titular monster.
Tooms was certainly a favourite of many viewers and saw the X-Files divert from its mytharc (the search for extraterrestrial life) into a more paranormal narrative, or monster-of-the-week storyline.
He is certainly a favourite of mine, even though the X-Files had many great monsters — he is also one of Neil Gaiman’s favourite monsters, so I’m in good company.
But what is it that makes me view Tooms as the perfect monster?
Some background
Eugene Victor Tooms is a serial killer with the ability to stretch and contort his body to fit through impossibly small spaces, allowing him to enter the homes of his victims through air ducts and vents.
Once inside, he kills them, extracts their livers, and hibernates for decades until he emerges to hunt again. The portrayal of Tooms is that of a deeply disturbing and relentless predator, who has a single-minded obsession with obtaining human livers.
