Film Review: Eraserhead

Director: David Lynch

This film certainly gave me a lot to think about even after repeated viewings, its a film I would say is amongst the best I've seen but not to be confused with my favourite films. It is a truly unsettling and darkly disturbing film which follows little logic in showing the life of Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) who is printer who is on vacation in a hugely industrial city. Many strange happenings occur like mini man made chickens that move and ooze when being prepared to eat, strange premature births and a bizarre encounter with a lady in the radiator.

Henry Spencer (Jack Nance)

As a film it is thin on narrative and actual events but creates an unrelenting sense of dread through the bleak imagery and non-stop drone of the surroundings. This is Lynch close to his most abstract but without a budget as the film is Lynch's first and was completed for under $20,000 using borrowed funds as well as an AFI grant. I believe it is a look at the difficulties of raising a child in an increasingly hostile world using this scenario as a metaphor but also at the consequences of irresponsible sex which in this case is quite frightening.

For me it created a constant angst about what was happening on screen and why? It feels like the whole film is being filmed in a bleak industrial future just as the world is about to end. In an unconventional sense it was one of the scariest films I have ever watched.

3.5/4 superb artistry creates a truly terrifying spectacle