Twin Peaks fan? Check out our review of The Entire Mystery, perhaps one of the best blu ray packages ever released.
 |
| Check out my package. |
David
Lynch’s personally supervised Blu-ray treatment of his world famous and highly
successful television show Twin Peaks may
well be the best home video release of 2014.
Finally, fans have access to the long awaited deleted scenes from the
ill-fated Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me film
prequel as well as an ocean of materials never before seen and recently
conducted retrospectives with the cast and crew of Lynch’s elaborate saga of
surreal soap opera. Mr. Lynch has been
working on releasing his work to the high definition format for a long time,
but never has a home video package this exquisite, detailed and ornate ever
been released before, period. From the
creepy lifelike indentation of Sheryl Lee’s facial features on the cover of the
box, to the treasure chest-like box of pages spanning 10 Blu-ray discs
including a hidden Easter Egg inside the box itself, Lynch has pushed the
potential of the Blu-ray box set as far as it can go, and then some. Case in point, not to be immodest, but Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery is a
David Lynch aficionado’s wet dream come true. It's a treasure trove of the world of Twin Peaks which represents the best
home video release Mr. Lynch has ever created.
 |
| "Excuse my while I drink this coffee and try to forget about Dune." |
The Video (10/10)
Originally
released on DVD by Artisan Entertainment before Paramount Pictures acquired the
rights to the series and released both the first and second seasons, it goes
without saying the 35mm film elements of the 1990 series and 1992 Fire Walk with Me prequel have been
restored to an immaculate quality.
Transferred in 4K resolution under the personal supervision of David
Lynch, with his fastidious attention to color timing and correction to tonal
range, Seasons 1 and 2 have never looked this good. Aired on standard definition television upon
initial release, the footage has the depth of field and texture of a brand new
theatrical print being unspooled for the very first time. Twin Peaks’
deep red levels of the surreal Black Lodge are as lush as they must have looked
through the viewfinder. While Lynch
previously released Blue Velvet on a
remastered Blu-ray, this is the first time he has worked with the resolution
capabilities of 4K and to say Lynch has finally reached the pinnacle of
mastering his work for home video is selling the man short. As a Blu-ray of source material well over 25
years old, this frankly pushes the capacity and promise of the format as far as
it can go.
 |
| "Excuse me ma'am. Please stop your crying. You finally got the box set you wanted." |
The Audio (10/10)
What
would the world of a David Lynch film be without his wind tunnel sound design
and otherworldly engineering, taking listeners deep down the rabbit hole of
sonic possibilities film sound can offer?
I recall listening to the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack to Lynch’s Lost Highway on laserdisc well before
the Lynch-approved DVD hit the market, and it surpassed the technical merits of
many DVDs released thereafter. With the
recent development of DTS-HD 7.1 surround sound in theaters both at the multiplex
and home, Twin Peaks and Fire Walk with Me have been remastered
from the initial 5.1 surround stems created for the DVD releases and taken them
even further than before. Immersive
beyond words, Lynch’s soundscapes have always demonstrated the importance of
the aural experience of a film as opposed to focusing purely on image
alone. Angelo Badalementi’s iconic score
of jazz and atonal, industrial ambience sounds beautiful and terrifying
uncompressed. Whenever we find ourselves
within the Black Lodge, the home theater comes alive as subtle dissonance in
sound slowly builds up to a shriek. As
with the video, the audio is impeccable and inarguably the finest sounding home
video release of Lynch’s work to date.
 |
| "Wanna smoke some of the good stuff?" |
The Extras (10/10)
Now here
is where fans will find the cherry pie and damn good cup of coffee. When Twin
Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was first released on DVD by New Line Home Video,
it was announced the legendary 2 hours of scenes deleted from the final cut of
the film would be included as a bonus feature.
Unfortunately, New Line Home Video and the owner of the footage, mk2,
couldn’t come to an agreement and the project died a quiet death as the film
appeared on DVD. One of the major
critiques against Fire Walk with Me had
to do with the absence of a majority of the characters in the show while
leaving many questions opened by Season 2 unanswered. Lynch shot enough footage to make a 4 hour
film, and many of the scenes cut both flesh out the characters more fully and
offer some of the scariest scenes to ever see the light of day…ever. Much like the Blu-ray edition of Blue Velvet, Lynch remastered re-edited
the scenes as vignettes that could have easily fit back into the film. Fans pining for more Jack Nance finally get
their chance and Lynch’s Black Lodge footage is downright spine tingling. There’s a scene of Sheryl Lee staring at a
ceiling fan as she becomes possessed by the demon Bob (Frank Silva), her face
encompassing the frame as her terrified gaze slowly melts into a murderous grin
that is so impossibly frightening, it will induce nightmares even in the most
hardened of Lynch fans.
Not stopping
there, Lynch and the Twin Peaks gang,
both in the show and film, have re-united for newly created interviews and
documentaries including never before seen behind the scenes photos, including a
much-discussed moment never shot involving a pig’s head. And then there’s the package design
itself. Sheryl Lee’s face has been
imprinted on the box in such a way that your fingertip can feel every contour
of her nose, lips, and swollen eyeballs, quite an unnerving attention to
detail. The box itself is held open like
a chest connected to a black ribbon, with each page printed on high quality
paper with a plastic sheet printing of the details of each disc. Inside some of the flaps housing the discs
themselves are hidden easter eggs, including a reprinting of the bloody
handwritten note ‘Fire Walk with Me’ seen in the show’s pilot.
Overall,
this is a cornucopia of a Blu-ray set in terms of presentation, content, and
creative design, a boxed set to display with pride and show off to guests. Not even the most popular recent television
shows with several seasons have a collectible set with this much care put into
it. For both fans and newcomers to Lynch
and the world of Twin Peaks, this is
essential to home video libraries and demonstrates justd how far the technical
facets of Blu-ray mastering and packaging can be pushed. Buy this with confidence!
-Andrew Kotwicki