Random Creepy Scene # 587,336: Twin Peaks

James, Donna and Maddy gather in Donna’s living room to sing a song. The three are united in their grief over their friend Laura Palmer’s death. Donna realises that James is falling for Maddy, Laura’s cousin, who also bears an uncanny resemblance to Laura. After the song, Donna leaves abruptly and James chases after her. Left alone in the living room, Maddy – who seems to share the same perceptive nature that Laura, and indeed several of the other townsfolk exhibited, and just seems able to sense when something is 'wrong' – feels a dark, creepy presence in the house. Suddenly she sees ‘Bob’ a filthy, lecherous man Laura wrote about in her diary, claiming he abused her and would eventually kill her, slowly appear in the room. He quietly skulks towards her from the other side of the room and we see it all from her point of view as she sits rooted to the spot with fear.  

The sight of this dirty, carnal beast-man slowly advancing towards us and crawling over the couch with warped, slightly unreal looking movements (like so many of the series’ ‘dream moments’ or ‘visions’, this scene was also filmed backwards to create an off-kilter feel) is overwhelmingly creepy. His presence does not belong in the house – he has invaded a clean, safe and cosy domestic space – which makes the scene all the more effective. The others rush back into the room when they hear her screams of terror...




Twin Peaks was a series that was sopping in an eerie, melancholy atmosphere sprinkled with absurd humour. The central theme was the exploration of the seedy underbelly of a small, mundane town on the US/Canadian border and the murder investigation of high school girl Laura Palmer. Each week delved deeper into the darkness that lurks just beneath the surface of small town Americana. This town was anything but mundane.

But they brewed a DAMN fine coffee...

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