Overrated and overhyped

A lot of fun.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

At first, seeing an almost distractingly bloated Val Kilmer in the lead makes you think this is going to be a conventional B-movie; it turns out to be one of the weirdest movies I've seen lately! It's a highly stylized, sordid, Gothic fairy tale that draws heavily from Edgar Allan Poe, but also name-drops Stephen King and Charlie Chan! The use of color is striking (at times recalling "Sin City"), and there are some clever ideas in the script (the tower clock with 7 different clocks that tell 7 different times!). It's not surprising that this film went straight-to-DVD in most countries despite Coppola's name - it's far too eccentric for most audiences (there is even a sudden comedic interlude in the middle!) - but it's not without interest, even if your most likely reaction at the end will be "WTF?". **1/2 out of 4.

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.

An author (Val Kilmer) known for his stories about witches, visits a creepy little town and is inspired by a quirky local sheriff (Bruce Dern) to embark on writing a tale about vampires.As far as genre and publicity goes, this movie is a misfire. It's not a horror. I'm not sure where the R-rating came from, other than a dark theme, some suggestive shots and some blood. It's not really a thriller, either. It toys with being a murder mystery, but doesn't hold up. As is often the case, the first half was fairly strong, demonstrating some great cinematography, and building some mystery, suspense, and humour, but it rapidly lost momentum. Weaving plot threads from present day, the 1950's, and the life of Poe, it fails to deliver anything really solid in any of them. It's a pastiche of Gothic horror cliché. But I hope that was the point, and I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.I interpreted the film as being an insight into the creative process of the writer rather than being confined to the expected structure of a horror/ thriller. The title suggests an in-between place that the protagonist inhabits, betwixt the inspiring images of his dream-world and the generic, lacklustre result of his attempts to bring it to life on the page. But that could be a tough sell to anyone not already familiar with that struggle.

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.