By Maura McHugh

Electric Dreamhouse, out late June

Following their publications about Theatre of Blood and Martin, Midnight Movie Monographs have invited Maura (Twisted Fairytales) McHugh to take a look at the David Lynch-directed prequel to his ‘cult TV show’.

It’s very timely that we are looking at Fire Walk With Me, as the third season of Twin Peaks currently airing on Showtime/Sky Atlantic is much closer in tone to the movie than the first two seasons. Part of the anger and frustration directed towards Fire at the time of its release was that it didn’t meet the audience’s expectations – they wanted something that would resolve the show’s cliffhanger, but instead got a prequel to the show from a very different perspective.

In her intro to this very digestible work, McHugh is keen to stress that while she’ll share some background on the Twin Peaks show, the movie works best as a separate artefact with its  own identity. It’s hard to disagree, and one wonders how the movie would have been received if the TV series didn’t exist to draw the unwelcome comparisons.

Season 3 of the show has recently featured a character who only appears in Fire, so it’s nice to remind yourself of what part he previously played, to help unravel the currently unfolding conundrum.

After a prologue, the work dedicates sections on Lynch (particularly the recurring themes he’d used in his work that would reappear in the TV series) and Twin Peaks the show. The remainder goes through the movie scene by scene, identifying links and clues, contextualising and positing what’s going on.

Verdict: This first edition of the hardback is limited to 500 copies, and at 120 pages it slots nicely onto your bookshelf next to your Twin Peaks boxset. Accessible, engaging and not too academic, the first thing I did was dig out my copy of the movie to reassess it, which surely is a damn fine result. 8/10

Nick Joy

Click here to order direct from PS Publishing