Francis Ford Coppola's extended 'TWIXT' Trailer

Francis Ford Coppola’s extended ‘TWIXT’ Trailer

TIFF recently released a new trailer for Twixt, Francis Ford Coppola’s strange horror-mystery inspired by the Gothic horror of Edger Allen Poe for it’s release at the festival next month.

Starring a portly Val Kilmer as a second (third?) rate mystery writer who stumbles into a small California town plagued by a series of violent and gruesome murders, Twixt follows Kilmer as he falls into a mystery of his own, navigating the town’s murders, horrors and otherworldly beings (Elle Fanning appears as an apparition of sorts) once he is lured back into town by the Sheriff who wishes to co-pen a mystery novel based on the strange events in the town. The film is narrated by a drawling Tom Waits whose voice-overs add a sense of whimsy to the whole murderous ordeal.

For a director as prominent as Coppola the film shot by cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. looks cheap & digital, a look that has been known to work in a film’s favour in many cases, but I’m not entirely sure I’m buying what Coppola is selling. The whole film seems like he knows he’s really telling a joke about this type of story, it seems off-kilter, whimsical, but never taking itself entirely seriously, I’m very intrigued, but I’m really hoping there is a punch line.