While watching the first two episodes of Twin Peaks and the film My Bloody Valentine, I wasn’t really expecting to find so many similarities between the two. Both are set in small towns, both feature an ensemble cast, and both deal with mysterious circumstances regarding murder. Released in 1981 My Bloody Valentine is a slasher film about a group of young adults who are trying to party on Valentine’s day and end up facing off against a murderous miner. In the first round of murders everyone knows Harry Warden was the perpetrator, but 20 years later the killing starts again and it is unknown if it’s Harry Warden or a new perpetrator. Twin Peaks (1990) on the other hand is about Agent Dale Cooper investigating the mysterious death of teenager Laura Palmer. The supernatural elements, and the uncanny characters themselves create an environment of distrust. Some may argue that because of those aspects that Twin Peaks is most definitely unconventional. Not true, it’s a perfect mixture of both.  “It’s weird, sure, but it’s also basically a prime time soap with a huge heart.” In the ensemble cast you really get a feel of each individual character’s personality. And same with My Bloody Valentine. While more gender stereotypical for the 1980’s you get a little piece of each individual to really make you feel that you know these people. These are people in your neighborhood, at the grocery market. Some would say the acting is over the top but I’ve met many individuals with big eccentric personalities that makes those in Twin Peaks and My Bloody Valentine realistic.

If Twin Peaks was purely unconventional it wouldn’t have done as well as it did and inspired countless other TV shows and films. My Bloody Valentine wasn’t as inspiring but it was very controversial at the time. Director George Mihalka wanted to hop on the holiday horror train but the twist was “it was all about small town working class and not about horny teenagers getting killed. There was going to be social commentary about loss of work; it was the beginning of the Rust Belt in North America, people were losing their jobs left right and center.” Which unfortunately is still an issue today. The main controversy surrounding the film was it’s fantastic creative violence. By using everyday objects in gore-tastic fashion it added a real element of terror to the film. Anything could be used against you, no where was safe.  “So when I came back after the first draft was written, I would say “okay there’s a changing room here and in the shower they don’t have shower heads, they just had pinched, sharp metal pipes, so here somebody could be shoved against that”. Or they had this kind of industrial kitchen in the union hall so we could boil somebody’s face because they had these big huge pots in there.” Director Mihalka had a very organic script because all of the action sequences relied on the location. Because of the location the atmosphere of the small mining town created a sense of believability and isolation. Critic Brayton describes “The grubby bar, the chintzy but lovingly maintained storefronts, the shrill cheerfulness of the mine’s above-ground employee common area, and even just the old-fashioned industrial texture wafting off of every establishing shot: these are not things that you’ll find in any “psycho killer in the woods” movie. “ 

This veneer of cheery small town America hiding a dark underbelly strikes a chord with Twin Peaks as well. Critics Todd VanDerWerff and Caroline Framke describe it as “a show about what’s good about the United States, while also being about the dark things the country tries to keep deeply buried, and it never once calls attention to those aspects of itself, because it tells that story through the language of dreams. After all, aren’t the myths we tell about ourselves — the perfect small town, the beautiful homecoming queen, the virtuous law enforcement official, the devil himself — just dreams we’re trying to make reality?” The trailers and posters for both subjects hint at double meaning. The trailer’s for Twin Peaks show Laura Palmer had a hidden drug use and the poster suggests an element of a double life with the picture of Laura Palmer. The historical poster for My Bloody Valentine paints a different scene. The villain looks not even human, and the location is deep in the mines it almost looks like a sewer. The trailer shows more of the darkness hiding in every day small town Americana.

Both Twin Peaks and My Bloody Valentine have become more popular years after their first release. Both are a mix of conventional and mainstream standards, and both include shocking visuals that are violent or just plain weird. Each have inspired the industry in different ways. I would recommend watching both to see how each small town deals with the stress of death. And how this work has influenced film and television today.