Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Wuchak Released in 2011 and Written & directed by Francis Ford Coppola, "Twixt" is a mystery dramedy with elements of horror starring Val Kilmer as Hall Baltimore, a mystery/horror writer with a declining career. On his latest book tour he arrives in a small town and gets caught up in a murder mystery upon meeting the eccentric sheriff, Bobby LaGrange (Bruce Dern). He meets a quasi-goth girl named V (Elle Fanning) who reminds him of his pubescent daughter. There's also a camp of weirdo goth-kids across the lake and Edgar Allen Poe shows up now and then as a kind of spirit-guide (Ben Chaplin), but what's dream and what's reality? And who murdered the female in the morgue? Alden Ehrenreich is on hand as the leader of the wannabe vampire youths, Flamingo, while Anthony Fusco plays the dubious pastor. Joanne Whalley appears as Baltimore's wife while Bruce A. Miroglio plays the fat bastage deputy. "Twixt" (as in 'betwixt,' between) combines the look of Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) with the inscrutableness of 2007's "Youth Without Youth" plus a sense of humor. It's a quirky, hermetic mystery flick that leaves you scratching your head, but you strangely find yourself enjoying the ride, for the most part. It's a fun Gothic tale with beautifully haunting cinematography & atmosphere, highlighted by Poe, bell towers, ghosts and bats in the belfry, which bring to mind the horror tales of KD/MF, like 1987's ABIGAIL and 1993's IN THE SHADOWS. The enhanced moonlighting and otherworldly blueish gray tones are awesome. At the same time, "Twixt" is about the creative process as we observe the desperation of a writer with a splash of actual talent scraping the bottom of the barrel, often under the influence of sundry intoxicants. Will he come up with a best seller? Will he solve the murder mystery? Will he come to terms with his ghosts of the past and his inner demons, so to speak, specters and demons that arise from his guilt over what happened to his daughter? A lot of the movie is an internal dialogue with the writer's own ghosts and literary influences. Poe and Charles Baudelaire (a notorious substance abuser) are referenced, with the former intermittently appearing, but only when Baltimore is under the influence, or dreaming. Did the abuse and murder of the children happen as shown? Or did Poe and the vampire incarnation of his own daughter serve as muses to the writer as he works his way through creating a story that turns his career around? Coppola leaves it up to you to decide what is real and what is imagination, but the answers are there if you want to mine 'em. Francis got the story from a dream he had while staying in Istanbul. This sets-up the criticism that Coppola's dream is the audience's nightmare. While "Twixt" leaves too many threads dangling, the parts are all there; they just needed sewn together more effectively. Then again, Francis likely wanted the viewer to leave with questions to ponder. See below for insights. The film runs 88 minutes and was shot at Kelseyville and the Clear Lake area of Northern California. GRADE: B- (6.5/10)MISC. INSIGHTS ***SPOILER ALERT*** (Don't read further unless you've watched the movie)A lot of what happens in the town was the author working out his story. Most of it isn't real. The sheriff and deputy are real, as are their deaths at the end, not to mention Baltimore's wife. The sheriff really wanted to write with him. The movie shows what Baltimore experienced as he journeys through his creative process. His book is completed by the end, selling 30,000 copies.The bell tower keeps 7 different times, a representation of when Baltimore wasn't able to go on a trip with his daughter, as he set the clock with the wrong time, so the alarm didn't go off. And his daughter died on the trip. So "time" in the novel for him is useless and naturally the antagonist. Even V says keeping track of time "here" is pointless, which is why she missed his book signing. A big part of the movie is Hall's loss of his daughter. Time is the 'villain.' By not dealing with the tragic accident Baltimore is figuratively keeping his daughter undead. He's fighting time somehow. The age of his daughter when she died is also pertinent. She was betwixt a child and a teenager. And Hall was perhaps between deadlines and going on tours, thus missing out on some of her late childhood/early adolescence ("I thought they would be small boats... children's boats...") The vampire kids represent the strange changes children go through as they enter their teens – the music they like, how they dress, etc. – as they start developing a disposition of their own. It seems so weird to their parents who suddenly find themselves "on the outside looking in." Sheriff LaGrange represents the older generation thinking "Bah, these kids today!" The psycho pastor slays the kids to keep them from "becoming vampires," that is, becoming teenagers who will lose their innocence as they make many mistakes learning to decide for themselves. Flamingo is akin to the Pied Piper; he "gets away" at the end because he'll always be around: There will always be a teenage sense of rebellion, regardless of the clothes it wears.If my comments sound like several dubiously-linking threads its because the movie leaves you with this impression.

jonathanruano "Twixt" could be confused for any direct to TV movie, except for the fact that the great (or rather once great) Francis Ford Coppola directed and produced it and the gifted actor Val Kilmer starred in the title role. The film is basically a lame murder mystery in a small town (because all murders and supernatural phenomena happen in obscure, small towns, don't you know!), replete with tormented spirits coming back from the dead, a weary novelist searching for inspiration (Val Kilmer looks so uninspired and miserable playing this novelist that he makes us, the audience, feel miserable), and an old crusty sheriff who wants to be the title character in the novelist's new book.Given the film's formulaic and boring plot, what I would like to see is a documentary on the story conferences for Twixt. I cannot imagine Coppolla directing this movie in the 1970s, when he was operating at the peak of his abilities. Back then, he had too many good ideas for great movies to bother directing a film based on a dreary and uninspired premise. So what convinced this director that "Twixt" was a film-able concept and to write a large cheque to finance it. I do not even think Coppolla would even invest money into such a film, if a director approached him with a script on this very topic. Yet thirty-seven years after directing the brilliant Godfather Part II, Coppolla personally directs this unworthy garbage. I would also like to know what convinced Val Kilmer, who was great in "Thunderheart" and "The Doors," to star in a move that gave him zero opportunity to exploit his gifts as an actor. Was he so enthralled by the prospect of working with the great Coppolla that he didn't read through the script and wonder whether he really wanted his name associated with this boring project? Or maybe Kilmer just took the money and ran, like some other actors did when they trashed their careers on mindless films (Burt Reynolds and Whoopi Goldberg are two good examples) like this one. The only semi-bright light in this whole movie is the spirit of the tormented girl, played by Dakota Fanning. But one wonders if Fanning deserved a more complicated role that could really transform her into a big star. In closing, Twixt is not only a bad film, but also an unnecessary film with nothing flesh or interesting to say and certainly not a film worth seeing.

Claudio Carvalho The decadent writer of witch tales Hall Baltimore (Val Kilmer) travels to Swann Valley, a small town where people go to be forgotten, as part of his tour to promote his recent novel. The town does not have a book store, and Hall stays in a hardware store waiting for his nonexistent fans. Later Sheriff Bobby LaGrange (Bruce Dern), who is an aspirant writer, arrives and tells that he is his fan and asks for an autograph in his book. Then he asks if Hall could read his recent work and invites him to go to the morgue to see the body of a victim of a serial-killer that was murdered with a stake through her heart. Then Hall goes to a coffee shop and discovers that Edgar Allan Poe has once come to a hotel in the town where twelve children have been murdered. He goes to his room and tells his wife through Skype that he is going to write a novel based on the weird events at Swann Valley. Hall falls sleep and in his dream, he walks along a park where he meets the twelve year-old Virginia "V" (Elle Fanning) that tells that is her fan, and then with Edgar Allan Poe (Ben Chaplin). On the next morning, Hall decides to team-up with Bobby to write a story based on his idea, but he is blocked and uses pills to sleep and dream. Along the creation process, Hall entwines reality with his dreams."Twixt" is a stylish and Gothic movie by Francis Ford Coppola, with a ghost story about the writing process, magnificent cinematography and atmosphere and great performance of Val Kilmer. Unfortunately, the screenplay is messy and disappoints most of the viewers including me. The potential of the storyline is lost with the poor script. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Virginia"Note: On 20 Juky 2016 I saw this film again.

FlashCallahan A writer in a declining career arrives in a small town as part of his book tour and gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl. That night in a dream, he is approached by a mysterious ghost. He's unsure of her connection to the murder in the town, but is grateful for the story being handed to him. He is led to the truth of the story, surprised to find that the ending has more to do with his own life than he could ever have anticipated....If you expect a comeback of sorts from Coppola, stay away, it's not in the same league of any if his greats, this was more of an experiment for him in editing, that went a bit awry.But saying that, its a strange little film that harks of Twin Peaks merged with The Company Of Wolves, If written by Stephen King. In fact, there are lots of elements that are familiar in the narrative.A sleepy town has a secret uncovered, when a writer comes to town, it's been done before, and had me thinking of Misery, The Shining, and Secret Window.But the story isn't really the important part of the film ironically, it's the cinematography and the wonderful, boozy dream sequences Kilmer has that makes this the curious piece that it is.Its a predictable enough story, fused with bizarre but brilliant things, Poe popping up every now and again, and the brilliant inclusion of Whalley as Kilmer's long suffering wife.So all in all, its nothing brilliant, amazing to look at, and very bizarre, but homaging Stephen King a little too much.