“I’ve already gone places. I kind of like to stay where I am.” The great Harry Dean Stanton tearfully recites these words to FBI agents Chet Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland) in David Lynch’s 1992 masterwork Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Though this scene seemingly has nothing to do with Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), it’s a perfect summation of the film’s tragic protagonist. Someone attempting to find light in a nightmarish world. Unfairly lambasted by critics during its original release, Fire Walk with Me is a terrifying, tragic look into the last days of a young woman experiencing the worst kinds of abuse.
Serving as a prequel (and a semi-sequel) to the cult TV series, the film mainly focuses on the last week of Laura Palmer’s life, the teenage homecoming queen whose murder became the focal mystery of the show. In 1990, television audiences were constantly asking who killed Laura Palmer but, in Fire Walk with Me, Lynch tried to answer the question: who was Laura Palmer?
