Twin Peaks had an atmosphere very similar to Lovecraft stories. Some things happen in Twin Peaks which makes you question if that scene or the other is a dream. Things are so unreal that you are not sure if that was an alternate reality or something of that sorts.
But in the end you are left with this feeling of dread, know very little, that things are beyond human comprehension. Many things unknowable, and you are nothing in the grand scheme of things, and that the knowledge enough would be enough to crush you.
Everything is as real as it gets. Brutal consequences, a far more vicious and violent reality than it would be in a real world sense. The ending was the best evidence of this I think.
I highly recommend anyone reading Lovecraft stories. They also have a great mythos to their own, connecting stories, characters, realms, and the cosmic dread. Scenes and settings having a painting feeling to them. For start I can recommend The Music of Erich Zann.
I believe Twin Peaks is the most unique work of art in the world. However Lovecraft stories are what comes closest to Twin Peaks.
Good post, cosmic dread is a good summation of the series!
I've read a few Lovecraft stories. I can see the similarity 🙂
Good post, cosmic dread is a good summation of the series!
I've read a few Lovecraft stories. I can see the similarity 🙂
Agreed. Twin Peaks, FWWM and The Return are what you get when you cross Lovecraft's "From Beyond" with... Don DeLillo's White Noise... and Henry James' The Turn of The Screw. And Bulgakov. And Borges. And Wagner's Ring cycle.
[And, no doubt, many others!]
That's my (admittedly convoluted) log-line pitch.
Good post, cosmic dread is a good summation of the series!
I've read a few Lovecraft stories. I can see the similarity 🙂
Agreed. Twin Peaks, FWWM and The Return are what you get when you cross Lovecraft's "From Beyond" with... Don DeLillo's White Noise... and Henry James' The Turn of The Screw. And Bulgakov. And Borges. And Wagner's Ring cycle.
[And, no doubt, many others!]
That's my (admittedly convoluted) log-line pitch.
Oooooooh, ever read DeLillo's Libra? (Not that it's anything like Lovecraft, of course ;-))
There's a reason my nom-de-post is Ric(hard M.) Bissell !! 😉
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This is well said. I can't think of another show/movie/book that left me as emotionally rocked for days afterward as The Return did...
...and yet I'm not even sure what happened.
It's like somehow they bypassed linear thought and slammed you right in the place where you feel fear and desolation and... well, cosmic dread. It's like they hacked your brain's emotional circuits and made you feel all that without being able to explain why. Now that's what I call power.
Hi Bad Fan,Good post, cosmic dread is a good summation of the series!
I've read a few Lovecraft stories. I can see the similarity 🙂
Agreed. Twin Peaks, FWWM and The Return are what you get when you cross Lovecraft's "From Beyond" with... Don DeLillo's White Noise... and Henry James' The Turn of The Screw. And Bulgakov. And Borges. And Wagner's Ring cycle.
[And, no doubt, many others!]
That's my (admittedly convoluted) log-line pitch.
Oooooooh, ever read DeLillo's Libra? (Not that it's anything like Lovecraft, of course ;-))
There's a reason my nom-de-post is Ric(hard M.) Bissell !! 😉
- /< /\ /> -
No, I haven't! but it's now on my list, for sure! Thanks, Ric!!
Good post, cosmic dread is a good summation of the series!
I've read a few Lovecraft stories. I can see the similarity 🙂
Agreed. Twin Peaks, FWWM and The Return are what you get when you cross Lovecraft's "From Beyond" with... Don DeLillo's White Noise... and Henry James' The Turn of The Screw. And Bulgakov. And Borges. And Wagner's Ring cycle.
[And, no doubt, many others!]
That's my (admittedly convoluted) log-line pitch.
It's interesting you likened Twin Peaks to Delillo's "White Noise" because I always thought Lynch would be perfect for a film adaptation to that book. . Both Twin Peaks and White Noise are incredibly brooding.
White Noise and Libra are both good books. Underworld is another brilliant Don DeLillo book. I was just reading Stephen King's Tommyknockers the other day and that like The Dark Tower series as elements of Twin Peaks. I suppose Stephen King is the master of small town America horror. I am just re-reading It after 30 years and it is probably one of his best books.
I agree with the cosmic horror aspect of the ending. It's almost straight out of Lovecraft, with a protagonist realizing with horror the enormity of the extradimensional entities aligned against him. It could probably use a little more gibbering and broken sanity, but Laura's scream was pretty darn good.
White Noise and Libra are both good books. Underworld is another brilliant Don DeLillo book. I was just reading Stephen King's Tommyknockers the other day and that like The Dark Tower series as elements of Twin Peaks. I suppose Stephen King is the master of small town America horror. I am just re-reading It after 30 years and it is probably one of his best books.
Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Color Out of Space also capture the elements of small town horror very well. I would recommend starting with those two as well as the Call of Cthulhu. The Rats in the Walls, the Dunwich Horror, Under the Pyramid, all good stuff. For something more in the fantasy realm, you can check out the Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath.
Agree with you folks here, the Mother/Experiment belongs up there with the Elder and Outer Gods.
The Return's narrative structure/mood compared to Lovecraft stories: episodes 1-17 are the Call of Chtulhu while episode 18 is certainly the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.
This is well said. I can't think of another show/movie/book that left me as emotionally rocked for days afterward as The Return did...
...and yet I'm not even sure what happened.
It's like somehow they bypassed linear thought and slammed you right in the place where you feel fear and desolation and... well, cosmic dread. It's like they hacked your brain's emotional circuits and made you feel all that without being able to explain why. Now that's what I call power.
This. Yes. The first week after viewing the finale I felt depressed, freaked out, afraid to go to sleep and dream....I don't know what the hell was going on. It tapped something deep in my psyche. And I am glad it did the same to other people too. I thought I was having some kind of pretentious, wishful (albeit unpleasant) reaction. I watched each episode of season three at least twice, but I haven't been able to bring myself to a second viewing of 17/18. It kind of destroyed me. Ha! Hopefully soon. 🙂
Fire walk with