Twixt - Movie Review!




Hall Baltimore is a horror novelist down on his luck travelling on his book tour.  His next stop: Swann Valley.  But Swann Valley is more than it seems.  There is no bookstore and Hall is scheduled for his signing at the local hardware store.  While there, Hall is approached by the local Sheriff who is an avid fan of his Witch Hunter books and is drawn into the mystery of a young girl’s death.  But Hall soon finds out that the young girl’s death is not the only mystery in town.

Feeling the pressure from his wife and his editor, Hall stays in town to try and find the ending of the story but no matter how hard he tries, something always seems to get in his way and he is drawn further into the dealings of the town’s Sheriff and the young girl’s murder.

Twixt is by far not your average horror movie.  Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola it stars Val Kilmer in the role of Hall Baltimore and Bruce Dern as Sheriff Bobby LaGrange.  There are many poor reviews on this movie as I can only assume it was due to misled expectations for the film.

Twixt is about a writer who has an idea for a new story but cannot find the ending.  The bulk of the movie is a series of dream sequences in which he weaves together the mystery of the young girl’s death, the murders that occurred several years ago, the supposed haunted clock tower and the rumors of vampire teenagers across the lake.  These dream sequences are filmed in black and white to help differentiate the dreaming and the waking.  While dreaming, Hall is visited by the master of horror himself, Edgar Allen Poe who helps him work through his writer’s block and come to the ending of the story.

As a writer, I found great pleasure in watching this movie.  There is a scene in particular that had me laughing out loud because it encapsulated so truly the struggle to write the first sentence.  Val Kilmer and Bruce Dern give decent performances and it was nice to see Joanne Whalley if only for a brief turn.  Love it or hate it, I will leave that decision up to you.


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