Small Town Hauntings
Twin Peaks and American horror
Warning: Important spoilers and plot information about the first two seasons of Twin Peaks will be discussed here.
The nuclear family in their pretty house nestled in a peaceful small town is often the idyllic image of the “American Dream.” The small town represents the middle class, safety, and family values. But in Twin Peaks and other American horror classics, the small town is a setting of dark secrets, domestic violence, and evil forces.
Twin Peaks was created by David Lynch and Mark Frost with the first two seasons airing in 1990 and 1991. The fictional small town of Twin Peaks is in rural Washington State. The show is set in the present day, early 1990s, but the town looks more like 1950s America. Two wealthy families control the majority of businesses. The Hornes own the Great Northern Lodge, which is frequented by travelers from throughout the world. The Packards control the log mill, which employs many people in town, but is no longer as profitable as it once was. Every day locals meet up at the RR Diner run by Norma (Peggy Lipton) who is famous for her amazing pies. On the surface Twin Peaks appears like a small, friendly, all American place. But the community is shocked when homecoming queen Lauren Palmer (Sheryl Lee) is found dead on a beach. Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) of the FBI is brought in because the murder is suspected to be connected to a serial killer. At first it seems like just another murder case, but as Agent Cooper learns the history of Twin Peaks, he suspects there might be dark supernatural forces impacting the town.
Cooper’s spiritual beliefs and character make it easier for him to accept the supernatural and appreciate the small town values of Twin Peaks. From his studies of Tibetan Buddhism and work on unexplained phenomena with the FBI, he believes there are unseen good and evil forces in the world. He also accepts visions and dreams as legitimate guides to the world. He has a clear sense of right and wrong and that there is an order to the world. In this way Cooper’s spirituality connects to the All-American character that Lynch was going for – wholesome, confident, and possessing a kind of innocence. When Cooper comes to Twin Peaks, he is an outsider, but he feels right at home. He becomes obsessed with their amazing coffee and pie. In his encounters with the townspeople he is always gracious and joyful. He seems to genuinely love Twin Peaks at first – he appreciates the natural beauty of the area and the goodness of the local people.
But beneath the veneer of small town pleasantries are violence, addiction, and greed. Laura Palmer was the homecoming queen and helped with Meals on Wheels, but was also a cocaine addict and a sex worker. High school football champs Bobby Briggs and his friend Mike are helping sell cocaine to their classmates. Ben Horne, local business owner of the Great Northern, also operates One Eyed Jack’s, an illegal casino and brothel across the border in Canada. The respectable Dr. Hayward attacks Ben Horne in a moment of rage. Truck driver Leo Johnson repeatedly abuses his wife Shelly.
The evil and mysterious supernatural forces are shown as real in the show, but they might also just be cover for the more ordinary evils of American life. This is a recurrent theme in some of Lynch’s other films, such as the violence of romantic relationships in Blue Velvet and the bitterness of failing to achieve one’s American dream in Mulholland Drive. Horror classics by Stephen King and Shirley Jackson offer similar critiques that are disguised by supernatural elements.
In Stephen King’s IT there is an evil force at work, but it is partly fueled by the community. Pennywise the clown is a shape shifting creature that torments the fictional small town of Derry, Maine, appearing every decade to kill small children. A group of friends work together as children and then as adults to try to stop him. But the creature is fueled by the evil of regular people. It gains power from the bigotry, violence, and indifference within the town. In IT one of the main protagonists, Beverly, is hit by her father for any small error. Pennywise feeds off these fears later on – recreating her father’s voice and likeness when Beverly is an adult. Pennywise often appears as someone’s greatest fear.
In Twin Peaks, the evil force known as BOB is the main villain. BOB is an evil being that has inhabited different people in Twin Peaks throughout the years. Both Pennywise and BOB are often laughing and joyful when they torment others. Instead of children BOB targets young teenage girls of Twin Peaks. Unlike Pennywise, BOB doesn’t directly feed off the sins of the town. However, BOB’s violence and lust are mirrored in several of the male characters, such as Jacques Renault who takes advantage drug addicted teenage girls, Ben Horne has multiple affairs and recruits local young women for his brothel, and Leo Johnson who threatens and abuses his partner. All of these men seem to have no moral qualms or regrets in the moment.1
The terror of domestic abuse is also a prominent part of The Shining. That King novel is a story of a family that has to take care of a haunted hotel, but the father Jack Torrance’s alcoholism and violence towards his wife and son occurs before they even enter the Overlook Hotel. Torrance seems possessed by evil forces in the hotel. But possession is often used as an excuse by abusive people. They say they cannot control their emotions, that they did not mean to do what they did, or act as if they have no recollection of what they did. The ghosts at the Overlook cause almost no physical harm, but Jack Torrance’s behavior is erratic, violent, and terrifying.
King has noted that he could not have written The Shining without inspiration from The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Jackson is known for psychological horror and stories of the uncanny. The main character Eleanor is with a group of people investigating the supernatural phenomenon at Hill House. They learn that the man who built the house, Hugh Crane, was a strict and abusive father, and tragedy followed his daughters into adulthood. Unlike The Shining and Twin Peaks, Jackson finds a way to keep the reader guessing as to whether the hauntings are real or just a mental manifestation of Eleanor’s loneliness and difficult relationship with her mother.
A common device of Jackson’s was using humor and eccentric characters to enhance the realism of the horror, something that Twin Peaks often does. The most unsettling example of combining humor and horror is Leland Palmer (Ray Wise), the grieving father of Laura Palmer. His grief goes to different extremes of depression, anger, and then jubilant denial in which he’s seen dancing or singing happily. It is hard not to feel for Leland as he cries over the photo of Laura at home. He is also laughable in his extremes of emotion – switching from grief to rage to joy at the drop of a dime. Even some of the townspeople begin to snicker and laugh at Leland. In all respects Leland seems like a weak and pathetic character. But Leland raped and murdered his daughter.
When a person shows tenderness one minute and violence the next, it is deeply confusing and unsettling. Leland Palmer most resembles the Jackson character Mary Katherine Blackwood (aka Merricat) from the novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Merricat is a strange and childlike character. Her actions and train of thought are often funny, but she is also scary because of her erratic behavior and violent fantasies. That both Leland and Merricat are likeable and foolish makes them more frightening.
The presence of supernatural forces makes it easier to look at these common problems that are often still taboo to speak of. According to the CDC 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys are estimated to experience child abuse in the United States.2 The National Domestic Violence Hotline reports that “an average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States — more than 12 million women and men over the course of a single year.”3 This high degree of intimate and brutal violence is challenging to accept in 2024. Once Laura’s murder has been solved, Cooper confides to Sherriff Truman that it might be easier to accept that Leland was possessed by an evil spirit. There is a belief that good and evil forces are at work that provides an explanation to the universe. But if it is only from the human heart, the darkness can be unfathomable.
Ben Horne does make efforts later in Season 2 to try to reform his ways, but this plotline is even more unbelievable than others. He doesn’t make any apologies or turn himself into the police, but just attempts to be “a better person” in his own way.
National Children’s Alliance, accessed 8/19/2024, https://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/media-room/national-statistics-on-child-abuse/.
National Domestic Violence Hotline, accessed 8/20/2024, https://www.thehotline.org/stakeholders/domestic-violence-statistics/.