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Since I'm a masochist, not only have I decided to watch a series of bad z-grade films, but now, from here to eternity, in my free time, I will also watch the craziest, most distressing, and sickest films in cinema history. It begins with Eraserhead, a black-and-white film from 1977 directed by David Lynch, creator of Twin Peaks and director of The Elephant Man. His personal style, surreal and dreamlike, often placed in everyday situations, has made him highly recognizable among film enthusiasts, as particularly noted in the trilogy "Lost Highway (1997)", "Mulholland Drive (2001)", and "Inland Empire (2006)". But believe me, the madness of these three films will never surpass the anxiety and tension that this first work of his delivers, which is rightly considered a milestone of underground cinema. Let's begin!
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There are few films in the world that give the impression of being a true nightmare on film, and Eraserhead is among them: almost completely devoid of dialogue and with a desolate black-and-white accompanied by a soundtrack balancing between Dark ambient and noise (if you want to hurt yourself), Lynch's work conveys heavy anxiety to the viewer, increasing with each scene. The scarcity of dialogue makes them mostly nonsensical or at least disorienting, due to the claustrophobic atmosphere perceived throughout its duration. The plot is almost non-existent, but as it should be, twisted and sick: Henry, a man with severe mental problems, discovers he has a deformed child to keep at home: from that moment begins a journey into Henry's mind, into his deepest nightmares: the film's surrealist vein becomes increasingly pronounced, the dreamlike scenes are disturbingly unforgettable: among these is undoubtedly the famous scene of the singer with the deformed face, who sings the famous refrain: "in heaven\ everything is fine". And at that point, goosebumps appear...
If you think directing such a film was easy, you're wrong: the production lasted a full 5 years due to the scarce budget Lynch had, which ran out quickly: during that period, the director had no house and slept on set, and Jack Nance, the actor who plays Henry, never changed his crazy hairstyle. I mean, imagine having to keep the same hair of a madman for 5 years!
Yet with few special effects and lots of twisted imagination, a small crew managed to create the perfect nightmare on film; haunting, mysterious, sick, distressing: these adjectives alone cannot describe the perverse allure of Eraserhead, but I'll give you a small example of its importance: Stanley Kubrick, not exactly the first random guy off the street, loved this film and showed it to the actors of The Shining during filming to properly disturb them. A film by a then semi-unknown filmmaker was one of the master's favorites!
Eraserhead is the perfect representation of a nightmare: a visual hallucination that will leave you with a tremendous anxiety and ruin your nights (if you're easily impressionable). One of the greatest horrors ever from one of the strangest minds in cinema, who has re-purposed the surrealism and Dadaism of the great masters Dalí and Buñuel, and recreated it in the most personal way possible. A cult classic not to be missed.
See you with the next human madness, but I won’t tell you because it's a surprise :-D
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