- The Control Voice: It is said only children are willing to believe in the possible existence of unknown creatures. When these creatures are discovered scientists will classify them by genus, class, order and species. But to children aren't they simply the monsters that they already know?
When a boy disappears at night, his sister claims the boogeyman took him.
- The Control Voice: Our world has been mapped, the oceans charted, animals and plants named and indexed... or so we believe. But there are still places grownups forget they've been and it is children who remind us that there are creatures that lurk in the dark and... under the bed.
Under the Tropes:
- All Myths Are True: The child psychiatrist Dr. Jon Holland figures out that various myths about child snatching monsters such as trolls, the boogeyman and Baba Yaga were inspired by real creatures. Furthermore, their ability to shapeshift inspired the Hindu myth of Rakshasa. This, coupled with the fact that they move around in the cover of darkness, has allowed them to (mostly) hide their existence from humanity. One such creature has been snatching children in Jon's home town Buford, including his brother, since at least the early 1800s, taking one each month on the night of the full moon. No one notices the area's far, far higher than average number of child abductions until Jon and his girlfriend Detective Caitlin Doyle are on the case in true Mulder and Scully style. The creature turns to stone when exposed to direct sunlight but there is another lurking under a little girl's bed in Paris.
- Child Eater: A boogeyman-like monster steals children from their bedrooms to devour them.
- Don't Go Into the Woods: Many generations of parents told their children not to play in the woods outside Buford. It turns out that there is a child snatching monster living in them.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: You can tell that the last scene of this episode takes place in Paris as there's an establishing shot of the Eiffel Tower.
- Here We Go Again!: In the final scene of this episode, one of the child snatching creatures is hiding under the bed of a little girl in Paris.
- Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear: A rather literal example in the opening when a Teddy Bear (actually a child-eating monster in disguise) underneath the bed lures a kid by having it claim that he's scared of the dark and wants him to pull it out. The boy is then sucked under the bed to his sister's horror. Foreshadowing this, the bear starts ominously stating "little boy" and has its eyes open to reveal them to be red.
- Survivor Guilt: Dr. Jon Holland, who was six at the time, blames himself for the death of his eight-year-old brother Chris 25 years earlier. They went to play in the woods near the old abandoned mine in their home town of Buford and Chris simply disappeared. Jon, whose career as a child psychiatrist was inspired by this tragedy, later learned that Chris was one of many children in Buford snatched and eaten by a creature since at least the early 1800s.
- Taken for Granite: A monster that seems to be the boogeyman only comes out at night because sunlight turns it to stone. This even happened to some of its spilled blood when light shown on it. When the heroes overpower and drag it into the light, one then smashes it to pieces with a lead pipe.
- Incidentally, this is a trait of trolls in some of the original stories, which are one of the creatures that it and others of its kind are suggested to have inspired.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: This episode features not-Mulder and not-Scully investigating missing children for this reason.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The child snatching creatures can shapeshift. One changes into a teddy bear in order to lure Andrew Rosman to his doom.
