With the arrival of Twin Peaks on Mubi, the iconic horror magazine “Fangoria” published a special collector’s edition featuring content from David Lynch and Mark Frost’s wonderful and strange show. Senior Editor Meredith Borders recalled first seeing Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me discussed in issue #117 released from Oct. 1992. This prompted me to find that original magazine and provide an archival look at Anthony Ferrante’s article, “The Fire Walkers of Twin Peaks.” This story contained several behind-the-scenes details and stories from Lynch’s 1992 masterpiece.
WHAT IS FANGORIA?
“Fangoria“ is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since August 1979. Kerry O’Quinn and Norman Jacobs first conceived a companion to their science fiction magazine Starlog in 1978. With a focus on fantasy films, the first six issues of the then-named Fantastica failed to connect with readers. By the seventh issue, they renamed the magazine and changed content to focus on horror.
“After four issues, Fangoria appeared destined for extinction,” wrote Marco Lanzagorta in an Aug. 16, 2006 article for PopMatters.com titled, “The Gruesome Gazettes Part 2: Fangoria and Beyond. “However, as legend goes, editor Robert ‘Bob ‘ Martin received an extraordinary amount of positive feedback from readers celebrating a lavishly illustrated article on Tom Savini’s gruesome make-up effects for Dawn of the Dead. By the seventh issue, the magazine’s focus had already been aptly changed to address the readers’ macabre interest in gory images of monsters and carnage. And it was at that moment that Fangoria became the beloved horror film magazine we know today.”
In the years that followed, the magazine’s ownership and editors changed. On December 5, 2007, a warehouse operated by Kable News, in Oregon, Illinois, which contained all back issues of Fangoria and Starlog magazines, was destroyed by fire. Thankfully, the company has an online archive you can browse of digital copies but re-printed older issues are only found either in collectors’ homes or the secondary market.
Today, publishers Tara Ansley and Abhi Goel are expanding the Fangoria brand from printed copies into the digital world, with the website and magazine headed by Editor-in-Chief Phil Nobile Jr., Digital Editor Angel Melanson, and Creative Director Jason Kauzlarich.
FANGORIA #117 – OCT. 1992 | COVER
Fangoria #117 was published in Oct. 1992 and featured a gruesome image of a “serial killer from Hell” from Richard Stanley’s British horror film, Dust Devil. The headline for David Lynch’s 1992 film was, “Twin Peaks – The Movie Too weird for TV.” In other parts of the world such as Germany or France, the film was known as Twin Peaks: The Movie.
FANGORIA #117 – OCT. 1992 | TABLE OF CONTENTS
At the time of publication, Norman Jacobs served as President and Publisher with W.R. Mohalley as Creative Director. The Twin Peaks article appeared on page 55.
“AT THE ‘PEAKS’ OF THEIR CRAFT The transplanted cast of the ‘Twin Peaks’ movie – who has survived and what is left of their roles.”
FANGORIA #117 – OCT. 1992 | ‘THE FIRE WALKERS OF TWIN PEAKS’ | PAGE 55-57, 68
The Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me-related story, titled “The Fire Walkers of Twin Peaks,” began on page 55. Bathed in a reddish hue, the background image features the iconic “Welcome to Twin Peaks” sign spot found along Reinig Road in Snoqualmie, Washington.
Ferrante is an American film director, producer, and writer, known for directing the Sharknado series in 2017. Hailing from Antioch, California, he earned a bachelor of arts degree in film studies at San Francisco State. Before moving to movie making on a full-time basis, Ferrante was the editor-in-chief of the now defunct Cinescape magazine.
Ferrante must have wrote his Twin Peaks story in September 1992 as there is reference to Lynch’s film from New Line Cinema already in movie theatres.
Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see/One chance out, between two worlds, fire walk with me.
Those words echoed from television screens in 1990 and directly preceded the introduction of BOB (Frank Silva), Twin Peaks’ mysterious woodland entity, who was one of the many metaphysical links to the death of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). And, like any upstanding incarnation of evil, BOB has become ingrained in America’s consciousness. With stringy hair and stubbly beard, BOB freaked out audiences with his maniacal grin and subtle way of working his seeds of depravity into the kindest of hearts.
If every demon has his day, then BOB’s has arrived this year. No longer is his presence confined to the small screen; he’s competing in the big leagues now that David Lynch’s TV sensation has become Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, a theatrical prequel to the beloved cult series currently in release from New Line Cinema.
“The thing I love about playing BOB is that it’s primal therapy, says Frank Silva, the man behind the maniac. “You would think that after doing all things, you’d be shaking and be all wrapped up in it, but it was the total opposite for me. It going into the playpen. And would feel so relaxed after getting all that crap out and having an excuse-that’s the best way of doing something.
“One of the ideas for this movie’s trailer was to have the camera crawling around the ground in the forest,” Silva continues. “Finally, it comes upon something you can’t quite figure out. You kind of see a jean jacket and then a back and this hair. Then the camera quickly moves over the shoulder, looking down at this hand scraping out Laura in the ground. Finally, the camera tracks off into the trees with the wind.”
Fire Walk With Me begins a year and a week before Laura Palmer’s vicious murder, when the body of Theresa Banks is found floating in Washington’s Wind River.
Enter straight-laced agent Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak), who’s assigned to the case and discovers that enigmas are only in the eye of the beholder. “I consider myself the lead character, but no one else says rocker and part-time actor Isaak, whose other credits include a cameo appearance in Silence of the Lambs and a bit part in the 1978 Japanese sci-fi epic Message from Space.
But fans don’t have to worry that agent Cooper has been replaced Agent Desmond is just one of many FBI operatives making the Peaks rounds this time out. There are the traditional mainstays of Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), agent Albert Rosenfeld [sic] (Miguel Ferrer) and bureau chief Gordon Cole (Lynch himself), with backup from such new faces as Kiefer Sutherland’s agent Sam Stanley and David Bowie’s apparent time-traveling agent Phillip Jeffries.
“Everybody else has the quirks.” admits Isaak. who tends to be a little hard on his own acting abilities. “There’s a scene Kiefer and I did with Harry Dean Stanton playing a trailer park owner. Harry had worked himself up and was crying. Real tears were running down his face, and that really brings you to attention when you’re doing a scene. For me the uninitiated, it was like. Wow, what’s he doing? He’s acting, Chris, as opposed to you, who’s reading his lines like a cardboard cut-out.”
[ed. note – Most likely the scene was Carl Rodd in Theresa Banks’ trailer with Agents Desmond and Stanley]
With all this FBI action floating around, only the bare essentials are left for the rest of the Peaks regulars. Jumping forward a year later, the film uncovers all of the juicy sexual exploits and entanglements with the dark side that eventually led to Laura Palmer’s untimely demise. And as this is a motion picture and not TV, the new Peaks pushes much further than the series ever dared.
“It would be fair to say that this is a no-holds-barred version of the mess a young girl can get into in high school, which seems like a safe and secure position in life,” says Grace (Servants of Twilight) Zabriskie, who portrays Laura’s psychic mom, Sarah. Returning to play the character was particularly intriguing for Zabriskie, since she got a chance to explore a different side of Sarah—a part which existed in the time-frame before the TV show began.
“Basically, I had to show what a normal life was before tragedy struck,” explains Zabriskie. “On the show, my character became sort of a study in denial and repression. It’s about the fact that when things are going really wrong in a family, no one wants to admit it, which causes a lot of strange behavior.”
In addition to Lee as Laura, other returning actors include James Marshall as her rebel boyfriend James Hurley and Ray Wise as her father, Leland. Moira Kelly replaces Lara Flynn Boyle (who had prior acting commitments) as Donna Hayward, Laura’s best friend.
“When you’ve already had a good actress in a role and nobody really complains about the replacement that’s amazing,” notes Zabriskie of Kelly’s work. “It’s a different Donna,” adds Silva. “The only way for another actor to step into an established role is probably what Moira did: to go in and tackle it in a whole different style and give a totally different interpretation.”
As for the rest of the Peaks regulars, suspiciously absent are Sherilyn (Meridian) Fenn as Audrey Horne and Richard Beymer as her father. Benjamin—though rumor has it they did shoot a brief scene together which apparently did not make the final cut. “Many of the cast were disappointed that they had little or, in many cases, nothing to do,” Zabriskie says. “There were just so many cast members that obviously not all of them could be in the movie.”
One of the reasons behind a few of these glaring omissions could be standard theatrical restrictions. As with all of his projects, Lynch shot so much footage on Fire Walk With Me that the first edit was nearly five hours long. When the film was released, it had been trimmed considerably, a process which has left out such key series regulars as Harry Goaz, who played the slightly slow-witted Deputy Andy. It’s been hinted, though, that some of the excised footage may find its way into a special expanded video edition next year.
[ed. note – The Missing Pieces would not be released until 2014, which was 22 after Lynch’s film was released in theatres]
The article on page 56 contained two images from Lynch’s film. The first is Frank Silva at BOB on the train car set in Van Nuys, California. These scenes were shot on October 31 as detailed in this Twin Peaks Blog article. The photo was taken by Dean Tokuno who was hired by Lynch to do on-set photography.
The second image has Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) being confronted by Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) during dinner. The image was taken by the late Lorey Sebastian who provided on-set publicity photos for the film.
“I really can’t comment very much about the movie, only because I don’t know too much about it,” says Goaz. “I did not come on until very late in filming, and I only had a couple of scenes, so I wasn’t too privy to what was going on at the set.” Still, he feels that this new Peaks has the potential to be “as outrageous as Wild at Heart, because as a feature film it can show as much violence, sex and nudity as the MPAA will allow.
“There was a joke going around the set calling this movie Caligula 2, and I begged David to let me do something in the nude,” says Goaz. “Andy would’ve been great naked.”
Since Twin Peaks has always been a place of secrets and mystery, the same rules apply, to some extent, to how much the principals want to reveal about the film itself. “I like not talking about it,” says Zabriskie. “It’s easy to keep it secret when you feel you have really great stuff. I guess it would be a terrible thing if you felt nothing happened, and you still couldn’t talk about it. It’s sort of fun, be-cause you know people will be able to discover it.”
Even if the short-lived series scared viewers off because they couldn’t get into its strange characters or alternate planes of existence, Silva feels that Fire Walk With Me will be used as an enlightening tool for both fans and the uninitiated. “The movie stands on its own, and you don’t have to have followed the television series to understand the film,” he notes. “There are definitely more super-natural elements.”
Working on the feature became an enlightening experience for Silva as well, since he discovered that his birthday and that of Michael Anderson, who plays the little person from another place in Cooper’s dream sequences, are on the same day: Halloween. “David had no idea, and when he found out he called CNN, and we did a press conference,” laughs Silva.
But last Halloween was charged with more than birthday coincidences. Since shooting went over schedule in Seattle. Laura’s death sequence in the train car off of Avenue 37 couldn’t be shot. So once they were back in Los Angeles, the crew had to film it on a soundstage during the last day of shooting: October 31.
“Five days after Halloween, in Seattle, they found the body of a girl off of Avenue 37 up towards the river, and the weird thing about it was that her name was Theresa Briggs,” Silva reveals. “Theresa Banks is the first girl who gets killed, and Bobby Briggs was one of the characters in the show. And when they did an autopsy, they discovered the murder had taken place five days earlier Halloween night, the same night we were shooting the killing of Laura Palmer on the set in LA. It was really weird stuff. Art imitates life. Life imitates art.”
I have to interrupt this story to examine what Frank said “Theresa Briggs.” I looked extensively at multiple sources for any details about her murder, except it doesn’t exist.
There was a 17-year old girl named Sarah Habakangas who was found on Nov. 7, 1991 along a logging road near North Bend, Washington. My gut tells me this is the murder Silva is referencing. Two more bodies were discovered in 1991 – the first on July 6 about 12 miles east of North Bend, and the second on Sept. 6 found along the Snoqualmie River in Fall City.
Without the internet or social media in 1991, Frank could have easily misheard the name. There is no doubt that the woods of Snoqualmie Valley had (or has?) a dark presence at times as murders did happen in the region. Unless someone has information about a “Theresa Briggs,” I’m assuming he actually meant Sarah Habakangas.
The publicity image of Laura Palmer on page 57 may have come from Twin Peaks episode 2.001, not Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
The second season opener featured a horrifying ending of Ronette Pulaski remembering Laura Palmer’s murder in the train car. There is a glimpse of Laura on the floor with dirty blonde hair.
Sheryl Lee wore a blonde wig throughout Lynch’s feature film including in the train car murder scene. It’s unclear who took the on-set photo but I’m assuming it was Dean Tokuno who took Bob’s image as well.
The photo of Catherine Coulson as The Log Lady was taken by Paula K. Shimatsu-u.
The article concludes on page 68.
Oddly enough, Silva had never intended for BOB to become the icon of terror that he is today—it was a classic Lynchian accident. During shooting of Peaks pilot episode, Silva was working behind the scenes as propmaster. One day, while he was crouched behind Laura Palmer’s bed, Lynch caught the image and decided to make it work to his advantage.
“He said, ‘You better get out of there or you’re going to be on camera.’ and I think all of a sudden a blood vessel burst in his head.” recalls Silva. “So there’s that shot of me at the foot of her bed, and that’s how it all started.”
As for the future of Twin Peaks, Silva notes that there is a rumor that Fire Walk With Me is the first in a package of three Peaks theatrical features.
“These prequels will help people understand supernatural thing,” says Silva, adding that he’s sworn to secrecy about any directions that potential sequels might take. But despite the show’s failure in prime time. its video shelf life may be stronger than anticipated. It’s had an immensely popular afterlife on cassette, where the first seven episodes and the season premiere have sold extremely well. On top of that. Twin Peaks is a cultural phenomenon in Europe and Japan: Fire Walk With Me debuted in the latter country with the second-largest opening weekend. right behind Terminator 2.
“People are fascinated by this particular slice of American pie.” says Catherine Coulson, a veteran of Lynch’s Eraserhead who plays Margaret the Log Lady in both the TV and film versions. “It’s pretty fascinating. because it’s a world that they know exists, but we’ve never seen it before on television or in movie theaters. It’s done well in the foreign countries because it’s captured the imaginations of people who must think finding out about life in a small town in the United States.
“I know that David really loves the world of Twin Peaks and would probably keep returning if there’s a continued demand.” Coulson continues. “It had its life on television. and that was a very vital one. And now David has this chance to do more, so well see what happens and hope it leads to more films.”
Silva’s note about multiple Twin Peaks films may have come from comments shared in 1991 by co-executive producer and series co-creator Mark Frost. A Twin Peaks fan newsletter was shared in June 1991 mentioning the possibility of multiple films. Frost echoed the sentiment to Noel Holston from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune on July 6, 1991.
“Frost said the ‘Peaks’ movie financed through foreign syndication of the series, will have a bigger budget than the weekly episodes and will shoot more in the Pacific Northwest, though the existing interior sets in Van Nuys also will be used.
‘If the movie works, I suppose there’s an opportunity to do like a ‘Star Trek’ movie every couple of years, if that’s what we want to do,’ Frost said.”
Ferrante’s article is a great snapshot of the early days of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Considering Frank Silva died in 1995, it’s nice having direct quotes from him about his experience working with David Lynch and Mark Frost.
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