Twin Peaks Has an Almost Identical Twin, and It's Lars von Trier 30-Year-Old Horror Series
Further proof of the enormous influence of Lynch's magnum opus on cinema.
Twin Peaks was a quantum leap for world culture. David Lynch's work canonized the image of a provincial town where all sorts of devilry happens.
He proved that it was possible to mix detective and mysticism, horror and comedy, surrealism and naturalistic everyday life in one work.
Ultimately, the series inspired so many creators, and the principles it developed have become so ingrained in popular culture, that the aftermath of Laura Palmer's murder can be found in almost every modern work.
The Kingdom Was Inspired by Twin Peaks
And even the most provocative director of our time, Lars von Trier, was inspired by David Lynch's most famous project.
In 1992, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation unexpectedly offered Trier to make a TV series. The director decided to make a strange and crazy story about a hospital, full of buffoonery and mysticism – The Kingdom.
What Is The Kingdom About?
Things are not going well at The National Hospital in Denmark. Chief doctor Moesgaard tries to get a psychotherapist out of the cellar and becomes his patient. Pathologist Bondo decides to transplant himself a liver with a giant sarcoma – for the sake of science, of course.
Swedish neurosurgeon Stig hates everything Danish, constantly climbs on the roof and looks towards the Swedish border. And patient Sigrid keeps faking new illnesses to stay in the hospital longer and investigate the mysterious case of a ghost girl who lives in the elevator shaft.
At the end of each episode, Lars von Trier himself appears to give a brief summary of the episode with a mocking grin.
The Influence of Twin Peaks Is Evident Throughout The Kingdom
Trier has never hidden his sources of inspiration. Firstly, it is the French mystical TV series Belphegor, or Phantom of the Louvre, which often scared him as a child. Secondly, it is Twin Peaks, of course.
The similarity between these two projects is striking. Like Lynch, Trier brings the format of the TV saga to a critical degree of absurdity, so that the existential underside of the world and supernatural horror can be seen behind the everyday scenes.
The mysterious Man from Another Place is replaced here by a duo of dishwashers who comment on all the events in the hospital.
Age, the ghost of a killer doctor from the past, walks along the corridors, trying to gain a foothold in the present by impregnating one of the hospital employees. Age is something like Twin Peaks' Bob, an emissary of the evil other world.
The Kingdom, Like Twin Peaks, Released Its Season 3 More Than Two Decades After Season 2
Another common feature of the two series is the long break between seasons. The third season of The Kingdom was also released two decades after the second.
Trier did not plan to take a break, but the death of several actors forced him to abandon the idea. But in the late 2010s, during another creative crisis, he returned to this project again.
Like Lynch, Trier plays on the topic of similarities and differences between copies, so The Kingdom and Twin Peaks can also be called doppelganger series.