A Journey Between ‘Desire and Hell’

Deviant characters. A greasy spoon inhabited by eccentrics. A bizarre murder plot. And Sherilyn Fenn as a femme fatale.

Many of the ingredients that made “Twin Peaks” a landmark TV show turn up in “Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel,” a low-budget yet pleasing mystery set in 1950s Anaheim, just a few miles from Disneyland. The story is almost as puzzling and every bit as satisfying as David Lynch’s show.

Fenn plays Bridey DeSoto, who believes that her husband, Chester (Whip Hubley), has plotted with a beatnik (David Hewlett), to murder her because she’s having an affair. But her husband is also plotting with her lover (David Johansen). She finds that out right before she falls victim to a formula that knocks her out. When she awakens, she discovers that her husband has been killed in a mysterious car accident and the police suspect her of the crime.

Rather than dissolve into a whodunit, the plot gets more twisted. Bridey, still trying to figure out what happened, gets a few more whiffs of the formula. Voila! Her husband is there again, and it’s her boyfriend who is found dead, this time in a swimming pool. The confused Bridey can’t figure out who is plotting against whom--if anyone at all.

Interwoven in all this are shady characters, including the motel manager (Paul Bartel), a peeping Tom with his own spin on events.

Fenn takes the Best Camp Actor prize, especially when her character swings from moods of flightiness to ones of fatalism.

“Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel” (1992), directed by Alien Castle. 90 minutes. Rated PG-13.