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A few months ago, the host of the podcast The Evolution of Horror launched a new one The Detective and the Log Lady where he, a Twin Peaks super fan and a woman who had never seen the series watch and discuss each episode of the strange and influential program. My sweetie-wife and I have been rewatching the series as I listen to the podcast.

ABC Television

There’s no doubt that Twin Peaks has serious horror vibes with the nighttime soap format. Amid the financial crimes, drug dealing highschoolers, and the unfaithful marriage there is also a story of extradimensional beings & possession reveling in cruelty for its own sake. A story of deep dark woods and the terrors hidden in the impenetrable shadows. A secret known only to the owls who are not what they seem. A story of barriers between worlds stretched thin and permeable.

In short Twin Peaks is horror, at least some of the time. Perhaps the more mundane stories of unwanted pregnancies, small town scheming for local petty businesses and the trials and tribulation of teenage love enhance the horror by contrasting it with such prosaic troubles. Amid the strange and quirky nature of the town and its residents is an existential horror that rivals that of Lovecraft elder gods and the vast uncaring universe is the greatest horror of all.