Hell Money, The X-Files: An Homage to Graeme Murray
Paul Wong, 2024
multimedia installation in
“The Prop House: A Collection of One Million Objects,” exhibition
at Griffin Art Projects
May 18 – August 18, 2024. Photos by Byron Dauncey.
The Prop House co-curator and artist Paul Wong played the Wiry Man in “Hell Money,” episode 19 of The X-Files’ third season. “Hell Money” is featured in The Prop House with one of Graeme Murray’s Emmy awards and objects from the MPF collection used in this episode.
Hell Money, The X-Files (season 3, episode 19) premiered on Fox in the USA on March 29, 1996. Written by Jeffrey Vlaming and directed by Tueker Gates, the episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.9, being watched by 14.86 million people in its initial broadcast.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate a murder in San Francisco’s Chinatown involving masked intruders. strange Chinese symbols, a lottery, and the clandestine selling of body parts.
The premise of the episode was based on a pyramid scheme involving body parts being removed from the destitute in Chinatown. The episode contained several elaborate special effects shots. most notably the scene wherein a frog bursts out of a victim’s chest. which was created by using molds to create a fake human torso that was then placed over an actor. ‘The Wiry Man; was played by Paul Wong.
About Graeme Murray
Emmy Award-winning art director Graeme Murray is best known for The X-Files (1993-1996), The Thing (1982) and Elektra (2005). He is also the uncle of Mount Pleasant Furniture owner Leslie Madsen and has played an influential role supporting the evolution of MPF into a major prop house for film and television.
Graeme Murray’s career in the world of film and television production spans decades, with credits ranging from horror classics like John Carpenter’s The Thing to beloved Canadian television hits including CBC’s The Beachcombers. In the 1970s, Murray joined the art department of various productions as a set decorator, then stepped into the role of art director in the early 1980s, helping mould the overall look of the acclaimed Canadian classic Never Cry Wolf, the comedy hit Look Who’s Talking and television’s long- running adventure series Danger Bay. In the 1990s, he ascended to production designer and helmed the crew of a unique new sci-fi series pitched to Fox by Emmy-nominated creator Chris Carter. Along with Gary Allen, Shirley lnget and Greg Loewen, they crafted the visual aesthetics for The X-Files. After an initial nomination in 1996, the team took the stage to accept its first Emmy Award a year later for the touching Season 4 episode “Memento Mori.” A surreal, stylized Season 5 installment titled “The Post-Modern Prometheus” resulted in a second Emmy in 1998. He retired in 2006 and lives in Vancouver.
