Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is a 1992 movie directed by David Lynch. The movie title is sometimes given as Fire Walk With Me. In some countries, it was released as Twin Peaks: The Movie. The film can be viewed as both prologue and epilogue to the cult television series Twin Peaks (1990–91), created by Lynch and Mark Frost. It tells of the investigation into the murder of Teresa Banks and the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), a popular high school student in the small Washington town of Twin Peaks. These two connected murders were the central mysteries of the television series. Thus the film is often called a prequel, but it is not intended to be viewed before the series and also has sequel qualities. Most of the television cast returned for the film, with the notable exceptions of Lara Flynn Boyle who declined to return as Laura’s best friend Donna Hayward (she was replaced by Moira Kelly), and Sherilyn Fenn due to scheduling conflicts. Also, Kyle MacLachlan, who starred as Special Agent Dale Cooper in the TV series, was reluctant to return so his presence in the film is smaller than originally planned.

Fire Walk With Me was greeted at the Cannes Film Festival with booing from the audience and met with almost unanimously negative reviews. The film fared poorly in the United States, partially because it was released almost a year after the television series was canceled (due to a sharp ratings decline in the second season) and partially due to its incomprehensibility to the uninitiated. Many people, especially critics, found the film stylish but bewildering. The film also disappointed many devotees of the TV series due to its darker tone, lack of humor and absence of resolution to the series’ cliff-hanger ending.