Horror Film Friday: David Lynch's 'Eraserhead'

Common sense tells you that you need to have a beginning, middle and an end to every story. While we generally accept that they do not need to be in that order, we do expect it all to make sense. But no one told David Lynch that and no one ever should.

While training to be an artist in the mid to late 1960s, Lynch changed direction in 1970 and decided to become a full-time filmmaker. That year, he had won a grant from the American Film Institute to make the 35-minute short The Grandmother. His next step was to make a longer film, which would turn out to be Eraserhead. After five years in production, the film was finally completed and released in 1977. Initially, the movie was ignored, but soon gained a following at midnight movie screenings. Thanks to that, we have one of the most unique voices in film history with movies that force us to question our own beliefs and what we would do if we were ever put in similar bizarre circumstances.

Lynch may have been interested in filmmaking by the time he made Eraserhead, but it is obvious from the start that his influences were not filmmakers. While Steven Spielberg idolized John Ford, George Lucas bowed down to Akira Kurosawa and Martin Scorsese was influenced by the French New Wave, Lynch's influences are literary, especially with Eraserhead. There is clearly a direct line from Franz Kafka to Eraserheard, with a main character bumbling through a world he doesn't understand.

The plot of Eraserhead, if you can call it that, centers on Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), who lives in a dingy industrial world where there is only one house – the one where girlfriend Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) and her family lives. While visiting for dinner, Mary's mother bluntly asks Henry, “Did you and Mary have sexual intercourse?” It turns out that they have to get married because Mary just had a baby... or is it a baby? Marry and Henry try to lead a normal life with whatever the mysterious creature is that Mary gave birth to, but she can't take it and runs off one night. That leaves Henry behind to care for it... and it's also the end of the “plot.”

You see, from that point on, Eraserhead enters the mind of Henry... or, again, does it? Is it Henry's mind that we are in or is this the reality of the Eraserhead world? For all we know, there really could be a Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near) and it isn't a figment of Henry's imagination. Perhaps, the Beautiful Girl Across The Hall (Judith Anna Roberts) is really a dream figure that doesn't exist. One thing that does seem true though is that Henry really doesn't understand any of it.

That last point isn't clear without Jack Nance's stunning performance. Nance, who later appeared in Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart, truly looks puzzled and it's not just because of his hair. With so little dialogue in the film, he only has to work with his incredibly expressive face. From the first time we see him onscreen – during the opening montage, with his head horizontal – he looks stunned. I just love the moment when he's served that tiny little chicken at the X's house. Even something as normal as having dinner has to be strange in Lynch's world.
One element of the film that doesn't get a lot of attention is just how funny it is.

If we weren't focused on the absurdity of the situation, Lynch's sense of humor reveals itself as the only classical film element in the entire production. There's the elevator doors taking too long to close and Mary's struggle to get her suitcase out from under the bed. There's Harry underestimating the baby's illness. Pipe organ music by “Fats” Waller punctuate awkward moments. The baby itself feels like a joke, looking like a snake.

The key to understanding Eraserhead is figuring out that there is no real answer. As Lynch says in one of the interviews included on the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray, it's all open to interpretation. Of course, no explanation for it can really be complete if you forget about that opening montage, with the Man in the Planet (famed production designer Jack Fisk) pulling the switches.

My personal take on the film is that it shows Henry's full life cycle. I do think moments in the film are in Henry's imagination and that he might have died at the end, overwhelmed by the growing baby. In death, he meets the Lady in the Radiator. At the beginning, when the Man in the Planet pulled those switches, Henry's life began over again. At least, that's how I see it. Perhaps the next time I watch it, I'll have a different explanation.

Eraserhead isn't so much a horror film by traditional definitions. It's a horror film because there's no firm explanation for the events that take place within. It makes Lynch's subsequent work seem tame by comparison – even Blue Velvet isn't as crazy as this movie – but it stands as the thesis for his career. He makes movies that challenge audiences, which is what all good movies should do.

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