As The X-Files marks 30 years since its fourth season, the episode "Home" continues to be regarded as the series' scariest and most disturbing hour, frequently ranking among the best instalments of the entire show. Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong and directed by Kim Manners, the episode stands out for abandoning the show's usual sci-fi and paranormal elements in favour of a grounded, horror-inflected crime story, which is part of why it remains so unsettling decades later.

In "Home", FBI agents Mulder and Scully investigate the discovery of a severely deformed newborn's body buried near the town of Home, Pennsylvania, leading them to the Peacock brothers, three men born of generations of inbreeding who live without running water or electricity and violently defend their isolated home. The episode was the only X-Files instalment to receive a TV-MA rating and was pulled from Fox's rerun schedule after its initial broadcast, only later becoming a syndication staple. Its enduring reputation rests on realistic, disturbing makeup effects, boundary-pushing gore for its era, and a claustrophobic directing style reminiscent of horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes.