The Nightmare Before Christmas light entertainment while marveling at how adept Hollywood has become at these techniques. There are songs, laughs, and a little romance. In short, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" does what it intends to: entertain." Desson Thomson of "The Washington Post" enjoyed stylistic features in common with Oscar Wilde, German Expressionism, the Brothers Grimm and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". Michael A. Morrison discusses the influence of Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" on the film, writing that Jack parallels the Grinch and Zero parallels Max, the Grinch's dog. Philip Nel writes that the film "challenges the wisdom of adults through
How the Ghosts Stole Christmas Frank Spotnitz had been working on, featuring a haunted house. Featuring the smallest cast of an "X-Files" episode—with only four actors—and a single set, "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" was the cheapest sixth season episode. The drastic reduction in the budget, however, put more strain on the main actors. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) reluctantly responds to Fox Mulder's (David Duchovny) call on Christmas Eve to investigate a haunted house in Maryland. He explains that during Christmas of 1917, a young couple living in the house agreed to a lovers' pact, one killing the other and the remaining one committing suicide.