Review of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) by Troy F — 30 Aug 2015

Time heals all wounds...and when I saw this 25 years ago, it was decidedly not the television show I'd grown to love. But watching this again, 25 years later, I realize that it is still rooted in the show, that in fact timelines have looped back on one another in the Black Lodge, as the end of the film reveals. But this is more a horror story than anything, owing a lot to the likes of Dario Argento, among others. I think maybe this might have felt more like the show, too, had it been closer to BLUE VELVET. When put into the context of the horror stylings just mentioned, it almost feels very un-Lynchian at times.

Having said that, I have a newfound appreciation for the attention paid to the horror that Laura Palmer suffered, especially given the way that victims of sexual assault tend to go silenced and unrecognized. Giving her a story and humanizing her before her descent into self-destructive behaviors might not have seemed like the right follow up in 1992, but it certainly has much merit and establishes her role in the Black Lodge that is seen in the show.

Minus 1 star for the gratuitous male gaze/ fetishizing of women.