Val Kilmer's 2011 Horror Movie With Elle Fanning Deserves To Be On Your Prime Video Watchlist

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Francis Ford Coppola's "Twixt" was not as big a disaster as the 1982 box office flop that almost ended his career, but it certainly flew under the radar upon its 2011 release. Much of that likely came down to the fact that the critics were not impressed at the time, but contemporary audiences look to be slightly more taken with Coppola's overlooked horror, which is currently streaming over on Prime Video and Pluto.

Written, directed, and produced by Coppola, the movie stars Val Kilmer as Hall Baltimore, a struggling novelist of witch-hunting fantasy fare. At a small-town book signing event, Baltimore is approached by Bobby LaGrange (Bruce Dern), a fan who convinces the author to visit a morgue where the body of a serial killer's victim sits. Intrigued by the murders and the town's history, the writer decides to pen a new novel based on the area. Soon, however, he finds himself dreaming of a strange nether-world version of the town where he meets Elle Fanning's "V," short for Virginia. Things take a dark turn when Baltimore struggles to tell fiction from reality and finds that his new story is actually about his own buried guilt.

"Twixt" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival back in 2011, before making the rounds at other festivals ahead of a limited theatrical release internationally. Coppola then released a director's cut, "B'Twixt Now and Sunrise" in 2022, which can now be seen on Prime Video at no extra cost, while non-Prime users can catch the film on Pluto for free. If you would rather experience the theatrical cut, however, you're going to pay up for the original "Twixt" Blu-ray or DVD, both of which are currently available on Amazon for a relatively hefty price.

"Twixt" didn't make much of an impact in 2011, but Francis Ford Coppola clearly put a lot into the project. Based on a dream the director had, which he described as inspiring the "gothic romance setting," the film was financed by Coppola himself, and shot mostly on his own estate in Napa County, California. But the project was even more personal, as the filmmaker explained during the original press run for the film that he was examining his own feelings of guilt over the 1986 death of his son Gian-Carlo. "I didn't realize it was going to take me to something I haven't ever admitted to myself," Coppola told the press at the Toronto International Film Festival (via CBC). "Every parent feels that they're responsible for whatever might happen to their kids [...] I didn't realize how much I felt personally responsible for what happened those 25 years ago. I should have been there."

With that in mind, you can appreciate that "Twixt" isn't just a quirky overlooked entry in the director's oeuvre, but a deeply personal film that fans of the director should immediately add to their watchlist. If that's not enough to convince you to overlook the movie's 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, there's plenty more about "Twixt" that makes it worthy of your time.

For one thing, Coppola continued to refine the movie even as it was screening. In a portent of things to come with one of 2024's biggest cinematic fiascos, "Megalopolis," the director encouraged audience participation during "Twixt" screenings in the most unorthodox way by actually editing the film in real-time. That didn't help him convince the critics — at least, not at the time. In recent years, however, the film has received much more praise from viewers.

"Twixt" might not make the list of Val Kilmer's best movies, but anyone who's watched the moving documentary "Val" will know the actor — who passed away in 2025 — was making some truly fascinating choices towards the end of his career. Francis Ford Coppola's deeply personal horror fantasy was one of them, and while critics at the time weren't too impressed overall, Kilmer received praise for his performance, adding yet another reason to check out the movie in 2025.

What's more, over on Letterboxd, many users are expressing a deep affection for Coppola's film, which, according to user reviews, is "hard to tease or puzzle out, but easy to love" and "probably the most Francis Ford Coppola movie in the history of Francis Ford Coppola movies." Whether that intrigues you will depend on how you feel about the director, but surely the big, beautiful, and ultimately unmissable mess that was 2024's "Megalopolis" has "Twixt" beat for the most Coppola movie ever made (though the former ended up costing him a heck of a lot more than the $7 million he put into "Twixt").

Regardless, "Twixt" is a fascinating little movie that should pique any film fan's interest, regardless of the critical reaction. As Coppola told the press at TIFF, "One of the most frequent things I hear is that, 'Well, the films you're making now are not as good as the films you made 30 years ago.' My answer is the truth: 30 years ago, those films you think were so good were not received well [...] 30 years later, they'll give you a lifetime achievement award for what you got fired for."