Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

After 26 years, the cult tv hit Twin Peaks is back on the air. But decades before the series made it's grand return to the airwaves, the original show received the big screen treatment with 1992's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

Now if you're not familiar with the Twin Peaks storyline, all I can say is go back and watch the original series. The film, which was released a year after the show was cancelled, is actually a prequel. It takes place the week before Laura Palmer's, Sheryl Lee, murder and the events that lead to it.

When I first saw this, I was a little disappointed, thinking that this was one of director David Lynch's weakest films. Like a lot of people, I was hoping it would pick up where the series ended. Revisiting now however, I appreciate it a lot more. At first, I saw it more as a murder mystery, which the series was. But now I see it as a horror film about sexual abuse and the monsters that stem from that. What was originally a loud and muddled mess of a movie to me is a lot more powerful with some great performances from both Lee and Ray Wise, as her abusive father.

I've always really enjoyed the first twenty minutes of the movie with Chris Isaak and Keifer Sutherland as two FBI agents trying to solve a case that ties in with the upcoming Palmer murder. I felt this section was more in tune with the original series than the rest of the film. And on a similar note, I do miss Kyle MacLachlin, who's role as Agent Cooper was drastically shortened.

I think that the best way to view this film is to try and not compare it too much with the original series.

It's available on dvd and blu ray.