The late filmmaking visionary David Lynch was truly ahead of his time, with many of his films misunderstood upon release, only to later be reappraised as groundbreaking masterpieces. While this was a consistent pattern throughout his career, the gulf between the contemporary and retrospective reception of one film is truly jarring.

As the director behind avant-garde classics like Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive, Lynch’s films and TV work blended the dark underbelly of suburbia with his absurd, dreamlike sensibilities. All of Lynch’s most consistent themes came together in his TV series Twin Peaks, yet it was when he returned for a prequel film adaptation that the critics tore him to shreds.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Was Not Received Well Upon Release

David Lynch returned to the world of Twin Peaks in 1992, just one year after the conclusion of the original TV series, for a prequel film that unpacked the backstory of Laura Palmer, whose death in the pilot episode was the instigating factor of the entire show. While this filled in important gaps in the narrative, critics were not happy.

This was because Twin Peaks ended on a cliffhanger, and those who had invested in the show were more interested in seeing the continued story of Agent Dale Cooper than watching Laura’s harrowing demise. As a dark exploration of trauma that took things into bleaker territory than anything in the show, critics dismissed Lynch’s film as overly pretentious and self-indulgent.

The New York Times critic Vincent Canby was more measured when he said, “It’s not the worst movie ever made; it just seems to be.” There was a sense that Lynch had failed with a depressing project that merely served to blatantly depict what the show had already implied.

Fire Walk with Me was described as “an unqualified disaster” in The Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone said Lynch had lost control and that the movie was inferior to the series’ iconic two-hour pilot episode. This was the prevailing opinion until the prequel began to be reappraised slowly from the late 1990s onwards.

Lynch spoke about the negative response to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me in the 1997 interview book Lynch on Lynch, where he got candid about the strange benefits of being put down. Using the metaphor of getting your teeth knocked out, Lynch called it a beautiful place to be because there’s nowhere to go but up:

“Fire Walk with Me was a beautiful experience, in a way. When you’re down, when you’ve been kicked down in the street, and then kicked a few more times till you’re really bleeding and some teeth are out, then you really only have up to go. It’s so beautiful to be down there.”

Twin Peaks’ Movie Is Now Regarded As A Misunderstood Classic

It is difficult even to make sense of the negative response to Fire Walk with Me today, as the film has become revered and acclaimed in the decades since. As one of the most horrific and powerful explorations of trauma ever captured on screen, it’s rightfully earned its status as a misunderstood classic and an essential entry in Lynch’s filmography.

Lynch always carved out his own path and was never interested in appealing to the whims and desires of mainstream viewers. Twin Peaks was a hit TV show, so it makes sense that viewers wanted the loose threads of the series to be wrapped up in a film. Instead, Fire Walk with Me only brought up more questions.

Sheryl Lee’s powerful portrayal of Laura Palmer alone makes Fire Walk with Me an unmatched depiction of an abusive childhood. True to Lynch’s legacy, audiences expected one thing but experienced something entirely different; rather than gaining resolution, they received an unsettling masterpiece that took years to be fully understood and appreciated.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Proves David Lynch Was Ahead Of His Time

Throughout his entire career, David Lynch consistently remained ahead of his time, and even his most maligned projects, such as his divisive adaptation of Dune, showcased him as an artist of singular voice and vision. The belated appreciation of Fire Walk with Me stands as a clear example of this, and critics now recognize its status as an undisputed classic.

Even the cliffhanger from the Twin Peaks series was eventually resolved 25 years later, just as the final episode of the show had promised. The long-awaited third season of the show eventually arrived with the release of Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017, a critically acclaimed swansong to Lynch’s career that acted as the culmination of his life’s work.

With that project, Twin Peaks had been fully fleshed out without Lynch ever compromising his artistic vision. It was a sad day for cinema when Lynch pᴀssed away at the age of 78 on January 15, 2025, but if the past is anything to go by, we’ll still be discovering new dimensions to his work decades from now.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Lynch on Lynch