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It sets the tone, the first scene, all in black and white, slow-moving, with premonitions of what may or may not be relevant to future episodes. It’s an unmistakable combination of something unmistakably Twin Peaks and unmistakably latter day Lynch.

The first four episodes are weird in the best possible way. The original series was certainly out there compared to anything else on TV at the time, but here Frost and Lynch go Lost Highway and Inland Empire all over our faces.¹

Yet, the story is, somewhat surprisingly, fairly easy to follow.

This comes down to a clever balancing act by the aforementioned showrunners. You have the craziness of Cooper escaping the Black Lodge² in episode three (a strong contender for the best Twin Peaks episode so far), where whatever world he goes through could very well be the one where Inland Empire takes place, with the visual panache of Eraserhead. It’s an odd scene, one where casual viewers might have jumped off the train, but the fact is you don’t have to understand what’s going on. It’s something fans can watch and re-watch and theorize on. There is a meaning behind it, but you don’t have to get it to follow the story. Just consider it visual candy.

It’s been a slow burn so far, but it never gets boring. The universe gradually expanded from the original show to Fire Walk With Me, so it makes sense that very little of the town of Twin Peaks has been seen so far. The story was always supposed to be on a bigger scale—that was more than hinted at even during the first season—though I’m still surprised how far it goes. The New York stuff, with the box and all? It doesn’t seem too Twin Peaks-y, but it works. I think. It seems like it works, though we might never know exactly what it all is. Point really being: this will all lead back to Twin Peaks.

Finally, Kyle MacLachlan and his array of different Coopers… Bravo. We haven’t even seen the real Cooper yet (I can’t count the Black Lodge version as more than a shadow of him) and he is nailing each character he is in. His Bob-infested doppelgänger could as well have been played by a different actor (I mean, it would have sucked if that was the case, but you know what I mean) and what on god’s green earth is Dougie Jones all about?

The first four episodes are everything I had hoped for. This makes me happy. Michael Cera? Such ridiculous fun.

Analyzing anything right now to a meaningful extent is impossible, but what a ride it has been so far. It’s like getting an 18 hour David Lynch movie. That’s all I need.

¹ Not to mention Mulholland Drive, but one could argue it was a bit less out there than some of Lynch’s work.

² My previous assertions of it being a waiting room proved to be wrong. C‘est la vie.

Oculus, Mike Flanagan’s 2013 not-too-terrible film, was one I got behind, and when I realized another movie of his was hiding behind beyond generic Netflix art, it didn’t take me many months to give it a watch.

In Hush we follow a deaf-mute writer who lives in secluded woods, and who soon enough is the target of an unknown n’er do well, imaginatively credited as «The Man». A literal hunt ensues — cross-bow and all — and for 81 minutes we get barely no dialogue in what turns out to be a tense enough story.

Co-written by Flanagan with his wife Kate Siegel (who also stars), there is a lot to admire about Hush. With a mere ten minutes of dialogue³, the plot manages to forge ahead without very little downtime or repetition. Siegel turns in a solid performance as the protagonist, as does John Gallagher, Jr. — the only person attached with much of a rap-sheet¹ — among a cast of four². Why is he going after the writer? Who knows! There are hints of human hunting being a sport for him, so I suppose that is reason enough.

So yes, Hush is a bit of a minimalist movie, and we never even leave the grounds of the writer’s house. It makes sense, really. Flanagan’s stature wasn’t great at the time of filming, and making somewhat of an artsy thriller on a small scale is a good way to show your chops, if you get it right. For the most part it works, though things are a bit rough around the edges at time. The short run time could probably have stood to be cut down another ten minutes, if only to get rid off some unfinished-feeling scenes. This was clearly shot with some serious time constraints.

The film did the trick for Flanagan, and he is now close to hitting the big time. Stephen King has proclaimed his admiration for both Hush and Oculus — this is indeed a King-esque story — and the two are set to collaborate on an adaptation of Gerald’s Game. Furthermore, Flanagan is making The Haunting of Hill House for Netflix (make sure to check out Robert Wise’s 1963 version, The Haunting, too) and I Know What You Did Last Summer for the big screen (hey, check that teen classic out, too!), putting the director firmly in the «prolific» category.

As for Hush, it is well worth the watch. Get past the ridiculous Netflix art, and you get a decent thriller with a clever conclusion. Could certain parts have been shaved off? Probably — the aforementioned scenes are a bit jarring, and they somewhat halt an otherwise nice flow.

But hey, you’ve already paid for the movie, so there are few reasons not to give Hush a chance. It is an enjoyable, almost old-fashioned, plot-based thriller, and I very much mean that as a compliment.

¹ He received third billing in both 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Newsroom.

² Five if you count someone who appears on FaceTime for 15 seconds.

³ Initially there was a plan to have no dialogue. I kinda wished they had gone that route, as it if nothing else would have been a fascinating watch.

The Trailer

A week away from Twin Peaks season three, and people are getting nervous. Any footage we’ve seen so far—which is not a lot—has looked very little like the quirky, eerie TV show. Instead, the experimental, dark-as-tar prequel movie, Fire Walk With Me, seems to be the proper point of reference.

It was not met with a lot of sympathies in 1992, the film. Here people had expected a resolve to Dale Cooper’s descent into the Black Lodge¹, as opposed to the origins story of the Twin Peaks mythology we received. Cooper was rarely seen in the film, not because he was stuck in some in-between universe, but because Kyle MacLachlan only reluctantly signed on to make what charitably could be described as an extended appearance.²

Yet… I don’t think this is a bad movie, be it Twin Peaks or otherwise. It might be a jarring first watch, but give Fire Walk With Me another chance, and you’ll find something closer to the TV show. Yes, it’s all distorted behind a bizarre filter, but squint your eyes and tilt your head and you’ll see it. If nothing else it is a beautiful looking film.

The transition will be easier to wrap your head around if you don’t approach it as a Dale Cooper film, but rather a Laura and Leland Palmer story. Both Sheryl Lee and Ray Wise give A-grade performances, and Lee reportedly lost herself so far into her character that it took her years to recover from it.

In form and tone, Fire Walk With Me feels like more like Lynch’s Mulholland Drive than the show. It sort of make sense, with Mulholland Drive being based on a Twin Peaks spin-off idea³. There are also those who claim the movie is set in the Twin Peaks universe, which might seem like a fan fantasy until you realize that, for a split second, Laura Palmer and Ronette Pulaski make an appearance in the film. True story. In what likely could be another Black Lodge waiting room.⁴

Additionally, the main character, Betty (portrayed by Naomi Watts), shares names with Cooper’s never-seen Twin Peaks secretary. With Watts now set to appear in season three… Well, who knows?!

Back on track…

It’s a bleak, dark movie, Fire Walk With Me, with no cherry pie or coffee in sight. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it does the job of telling the story Lynch wanted to tell. For the bigger picture, that was what Twin Peaks needed, and this is once again just a piece of the puzzle.

Season three starts a week from now. I will speculate and say the show will end up somewhere between the movie and previous season in tone. Or maybe it’ll be completely different. We will know soon enough, and you’ll be delighted to hear we will follow the show with weekly recaps, right here, at your reliable, friendly site, One Star Classics!

¹ I, as many, don’t actually think that is where he ended up, and what we have seen up until now is the referenced waiting room.

² He, as many, felt Lynch had abandoned the show after Palmer’s killer was revealed. Hard to argue that one.

³ Had the movie not bombed, we would have seen plenty of these.

⁴ Actually, is this the waiting room and where Cooper is stuck the Black Lodge? At least Club Silencio has entertainment, as opposed to the backward talking Man From Another Place.

I suppose my opinions on Shaun of the Dead and the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy run somewhat contrary to many. I consider this first installment to be the weakest of the series, not so much because it’s a bad or even mediocre movie, but because the zombie apocalypse genre tends to be limiting.¹ You can do great things within it, but the boundaries are pretty well set.

Co-written by Edgar Wright and Sean Pegg, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost, Shaun is a Spaced reunion of sorts.² The UK television show ran for two seasons and gained a cult-following for its surreal, pop-culture driven humor. Shaun maintains a lot of the latter—Romero references alongside obscure-ish influences³ are plentiful—but it is both more polished and more accessible than its predecessor.

So don’t get me wrong: Shaun is certainly a good zombie movie. It’s funny without being a parody, and the action is right up there with Romero’s … of the Dead series.

From a technical perspective, too, it holds high standards. There are some impressive tracking shots, and the use of colors makes for a stylish looking film. The acting is top notch, and only a horrible human being would not appreciate Bill Nighy’s appearance.

Shaun might in some ways be better than many zombie movies of yore, but good of a ride as it is, it is still a predictable one. I love the actors and the dialogue, and I love the cinematography, but as a love letter to old horror flicks, it might be just a bit too gushy. The second half in particular feels like it runs on autopilot.

The two other entries in the trilogy — Hot Fuzz and The World’s End — add more twists to their formulas and are better for it. Not that everyone shouldn’t watch and appreciate Shaun⁴, mind you. It’s an enjoyable movie, and a tasty amuse-bouche for what’s to come.

¹ Now granted, you have stuff like iZombie, but I’d argue that is more of a zombie themed cop-drama-comedy.

² Jessica Hynes makes a (too) short (of an) appearance, also.

³ The music sounds like something out of a Fulci film, for example.

⁴ Or Spaced for that matter.