Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) – Film Summary and Review

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. What can I say? It’s like Twin Peaks only not as good, but it does answer a few questions about the original series.

I loved the original Twin Peaks series. It was great and I liked the surreal feel of it. Fire Walk with Me also has more than its fair share of surreal moments but I found some of them a bit over the top. I thought the same about some of the humour too.

The first part of the film concerns the murder of a young drifter called Teresa Banks. The FBI agents sent to investigate the case are Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland). When the two agents arrive at the local police station everyone is so uncooperative that it is positively annoying to watch. Painful even. Ouch! It is easy to see that the scenes are trying to go for humour, but, instead, they are just trying and it seems forced.

The vast majority of the Fire Walk with Me is set a year later and concerns the last week in the life of Laura Palmer. And what a crazy fucked up life she seemed to have: daddy’s little girl might still be daddy’s little girl in some ways, but she isn’t so little anymore and is practically anybody and everybody’s girl now. She’s a bad lass, but perhaps a part of her is crying out for help, even when that other part of her is crying out help yourselves, fellas.

Laura is also a girl who seems to use her beauty to manipulate people. In one scene her boyfriend Bobby gets mad at her and demands to know where she’s been. He’s quite angry. She flashes a smile and says, “Come on Bobby.” Another smile and the beast is tamed. He also suddenly starts to walk backward—it’s more of a dance really—what do they put in that cherry pie?

The one thing that you do know when you watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is that Laura is going to die, so there are no surprises there. But there are plenty of other surprises and it is certainly a watchable film. My favorite parts were some of the surreal scenes (the ones that are not over the top), like the ones with the dwarf in the red suit, sitting behind all of those red curtains. For me though, there is no comparison with the original TV series. If you are a fan of Twin Peaks though, Fire Walk with Me is essential viewing.