20131202: Horror Review--Twixt

Twixt

1. Production Fundamentals; Reception
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, rated R, 88 minutes, horror, thriller, supernatural.
2. IMDB: 4.9/10.0 from 5343 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 7 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 31% on the meter; 22% liked it from 1099 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 72,341 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
6. Starring: Val Kilmer as Hall Baltimore, Bruce Dern as Sheriff Bobby LaGrange, Elle Fanning as V, Ben Chaplin as Poe, Joanne Whalley as Denise, David Paymer as Sam.


2. Setup, Plot
1. Hall Baltimore is a writer whose career is on the decline.  He is on a book tour in a small town ('Swann Valley') in California when the weirdness starts.  The narration tell us that there was an unspeakable murder some years past, and the camera shows us a huge, old, creepy, decrepit old house.  The narration goes on to describe an encampment of youths whose habits mystify the other inhabitants; perhaps they were Satan worshippers?  The visuals indicate a mix of Goths, bikers, tattoo aficionados, and metal music fans.  Into this mix comes Hall Baltimore, a 'third rate writer' of a series of novels mostly concerned with witchcraft.


2. Hall sets up in the local hardware store since there is no bookstore.  He gets a lukecold reception.  His first sale is to Sheriff Bobby LaGrange, who tells Hall that he also writes horror stories.  Hall is not too interested in the tale of a mass murder, but Bobby talks him into it.  Bobby hopes to cooperate on a new Hall Baltimore novel.  Hall finds out that Edgar Allen Poe once slept at the Chickering Hotel in town, so he has to check that out.  He decides to stay a day at the local motel.  Hall pulls out the copy of his first novel that he signed for his dead daughter Vicky.  Hall is not a happy man by any stretch.


3. He's on the hook for another witch story.  His wife Denise tells him in no uncertain terms to quit drinking, finish the contracted work, and bring in some dollars for both of them.  At this stage, the establishment of the movie's premise in complete.  He's in a creepy town; the Sheriff, who knows so much about the local colour, wants to cooperate on a new novel, and he needs the money for compelling reasons.


4. That very night, Hall's interactions with the supernatural start.  He meets V and talks to her.  The Chickering Hotel is open, and he talks to a couple who run it.  They tell him of the twelve dead children buried beneath the floor.  Hall gets to see them 'alive' and trusting the man who should have protected them.  He consciously thinks that this is what he needs.  He meets the ghost of Poe.


5. The next morning, Denise lets him know that she is going to sell an extremely rare book that Hall owns unless he does something to supplement their income.  In the daylight, Hall breaks into the hotel and finds much of what he saw in the last night's dream.  He visits the library next to research the Chickering Hotel and the mass murder there in 1955.


6. Hall tries to talk to the Sheriff, and talks to the Sheriff's assistant Arbus, who tells him that the corpse Bobby showed him needs to have the stake left in its heart.  Hall finally gets through to the Bobby.  Hall agrees to do the book with Bobby.  They negotiate; the Sheriff supplies information; Hall tries to fit it into a book that his publisher can accept.  


7. Hall gets started.  Unfortunately, he starts drinking at the same time.  The publisher had said 'no fog on the lake' but Hall of course starts with fog on the lake, and degenerates from there.  Worst of all, Hall acts like he wants to disturb the corpse in the morgue.  


8. To advance the story, Hall takes over the counter sleeping potions to help him talk to Poe about getting a good, 'bullet proof' ending for his editor.  Poe speaks eloquently about the structure of writing, and applies it to the present case.  Poe tells him of another layer of the truth of the 1955 killings.  This included a colony of vampires across the lake from the orphanage where the killings occurred.  Where the vampires were then, the young rebels are now.  


9. The sheriff suggests a ouija board experience in the morgue.  This does not exactly go well.  The corpse with the stake moves, and the sheriff brings up vampires again.


10. Hall visits the current encampment across the lake.  He meets Circe, and talks to Flamingo, who is a huge fan of Baudelaire.  He's also worried about a missing girl, as well as the colour of the moon.


11. Hall makes his way into the locked bell tower, where he asks the owner, 'what's that smell?'  The reply was that the tower is haunted.  Hall meets his dead daughter, who enjoins him to come with her.  The bells increase monumentally in volume; Hall escapes, but falls many feet into unconsciousness.  In this state, he meets Poe, who tells him how the vicar killed the orphaned children.  Bobby pushes for a bigger role in the novel.  Hall implores Poe to tell him the rest of the story.


12. Will Hall be able to put together a good story before the undead decide to have him join them?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Not a gore fest; well-constructed ghost plus vampire story.
2. Five stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Exceptional, beautiful, well thought out.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 10/10 What's not to like?  Kilmer, Dern, Chaplin, Fanning, plus a deeply skilled director.  Compared to most of the 'horror' films I review, the acting here is more like 37/10.


4. Screenplay: 10/10 Loved it.


5. SFX: 8/10 Good.  No let downs.