Eraserhead

David Lynch is a director that I've hesitated to get into and only now am slowly becoming familiar with. I have admired all of his work that I've seen but his surrealist style and unconventional narratives are a lot for me to handle mentally so I'm taking my time to fully absorb and appreciate his work. I've heard that Eraserhead is a crazy movie that is the stuff of nightmares so naturally I thought now was a prime time to watch it for the first time. It's not often that a movie meets expectations of weirdness but Eraserhead was not just stranger than I expected but it may be the most bizarre movie I've ever seen.

The movie starts out weird and just keeps getting weirder and weirder. From the man in the moon to the mutant baby to the radiator lady there is are a lot of surreal scenes and imagery from start to finish. What really makes this movie terrifying is not using cheap jump scares or buckets of blood or intense body horror or torture like so many horror do to elicit a reaction. Both the imagery and sound of Eraserhead are effectively used to scare and make the viewer feel uncomfortable. The visuals are surreal yet hauntingly familiar like the sort of thing a person would see in a bad dream. They linger on the mind like a waking nightmare. I seriously am afraid of going to sleep tonight because I don't want to be left alone with the things that David Lynch has put me through. A perfect compliment to the visual aesthetic is the use of sound in Eraserhead. Every cry or slurp or noise is exaggerated to first annoying and then eerie audible levels. A persistent sound in the movie is the noise of the mutant baby crying. It drives the parents mad and us in turn.

While the story is paper thin and surreal the strong themes of family and parenthood are extremely bold. I've heard others say they are glad they saw Eraserhead after they became parents because the thought having children after seeing this movie is a horrifying prospect. While I have yet to become a father I hope to learn from this movie and if I have a mutant baby I hope to love and cherish it. Seriously though, Eraserhead has to be seen to be believed and I encourage anyone brave enough to experience this truly unique film.

Tomorrow is the first Remake Showdown!! How does the 2009 Friday the 13th remake compare against Friday the 13th Part 4 (which is arguably the best of the original series)? Tune it tomorrow to find out!