Wow. It's hard to believe that Francis Ford Coppola (THE GODFATHER) would put his name to this travesty. It's a shot-on-video, zero budget piece of nonsense featuring a chubby Val Kilmer playing a horror writer who visits a creepy small town to work on his latest novel. While there he encounters the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe (yep),alongside a creepy vampire kid and lots of bizarre townsfolk. Is what's going on all in his head, or is there something more disturbing about the town?

As another viewer noted, TWIXT looks like one of those cheap, live-action horror video games made in the 1990s, like PHANTASMAGORIA, except worse. The whole blue-tinted look of the movie is a mess and the storyline is even worse. It seems Coppola made this as an experimental film but the experiment is a complete failure. The only interesting thing is that Joanne Whalley turns up playing Kilmer's ex-wife as an in-joke (she's Kilmer's ex in real life). Kilmer seems embarrassed by the whole thing and rightly so. Bruce Dern cameos as the town sheriff and the reliable Ben Chaplin plays Poe, but for most of the running time we're stuck with one of those annoying Fanning kids. For shame, Coppola...

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.

***Slight plot spoiler review as I explain what I think is going on, but not the ending***

Attempting to come to terms with the death of his daughter, a down on his luck horror author finds himself in the small town of Swan Valley, one that has its own haunted tale. The film uses human parallels to create a story.

Hall Baltimore (Val Kilmer) is convinced by Sheriff Bobby LaGrange (Bruce Dern) to stay in town and collaborate on a book he is working on. The town has a bell tower with 7 clocks all with a different time to illustrate the timelessness of tales. As Baltimore dreams he sees the crime of children being murdered as shown to him by Edgar Allen Poe (Ben Chaplin) his writer alter ego. There is the mysterious V, or Virginia (Elle Fanning) the vampire who represents his own daughter Vicky. We see this symbolism as he attempts to write the tale confusing Vicky with Virginia and as he talks to Poe, who is sometimes not there.

It is an interesting tale that is filled with mystery and light on the vampire and horror part. I think the film would had been better with the "1408" John Cusack in the starring role instead of Kilmer. Not a film for everyone, but it kept me engaged.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. The blood was light outside of one spray.