I couldn't help but think one thing while watching this movie: "so... this is where Tim Burton got his influence". I've seen all kinds of movies, some I thought were brilliant, some overly pretentious. "Eraserhead", though brilliantly directed, lacks a lot of support and relevance, and overtly attempts to be deeply symbolic. I remember when I enjoyed creepy characters and random disturbing scenes, but this film seemingly dumbs down the audience in an almost conscious manner.
The story centers around Henry Spencer (Jack Nence) who lives in a world that either resembles a nightmare or a different dimension. His days revolve around walking around his industrial town, and sitting in his small quiet apartment suspiciously observing every angle as if he's never been there. He's told that his girlfriend (?) awaits him at her house for dinner, and with hesitation he joins her, again, in an awkward suspicious way. The girlfriend, named Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) lives with her parents and grandmother who follow lifestyles of some impulsive serial killers. After Henry finds out that he and girlfriend Mary X have a premature baby, he falls head first into a world of mayhem, delusion, and sexual provisions. His girlfriend gives birth to a mutant baby, and leaves him to take care of it by himself.
"Eraserhead" is really unique, but over-stylized and pretentiously dangerous. In the world we live in today, an audience will fall in love with any movie that has some level of cult status. While I'll agree that the directing is superb, especially on such a low budget, the story itself lacks any drive. Albeit the movie has a massive creepy feel to it, from the subtle build up of bizarre sound effects to the sinister-like score, it leaves you empty and cold asking yourself what you had just seen. I've never been one to hold a good deep screenplay that leaves you thinking for hours against the movie, but in this case there's just way too much false instinctiveness.
The mutant baby is a motif that the movie attempts to force in order for us to feel scared and shocked. And in the center of it all, the baby looks more like a dinosaur than a disfigured, dream-like figure. Then there's the "creepy" girl who sings a song about life in heaven, which Henry listens to for comfort. Her presence is almost unnecessary and oblique, making you tilt your head back more asking "why?" is this a film that observes the life of one man? Did he suffer from a traumatic experience? We don't know, and director-writer David Lynch seems to think we don't care. The movie opens up with a scene of what seems to be an asteroid and an overlapping image of Henry floating around. He then wakes up on the road and sets out in Chaplin-like posture, passing and dismissing anything out of the ordinary. In one scene, he invites his next door neighbor in and lets her seduce him into sleeping with her. They then end up in Henry's bed, falling deep into what seems to be water. A pretentious goof might say it's an excellent way of showing sexual desire and an atmosphere that seems to give Henry the relaxing feeling he's always wanted. I say it's the first thing that popped into Lynch's head.
Half way through, I looked at my watch asking if it'll be over soon. Really, you don't have to watch the rest to get the basic idea of the whole thing. However I stuck around for the beautiful cinematography and excellent underrated directing. Lynch uses his camera and works with it like an Axe murderer would with a good victim. He separates reality with non-diegetic sound that the main character can actually hear, and really knows how to handle the framing in each shot.
I watched the extra features and David Lynch put into words what I thought was a true representation of this film: "I have no idea how the idea came to me, or when it came to me". How could you? It's completely random and spontaneous. It also suffers from a weak ending, Henry gives up and murders his baby only to see the little asteroid -- or his shell of life -- burst and explode, leaving him to go into heaven with the strange butt-face girl who sings in his radiator. Well, problem solved, kill the itch and join peace for eternity. I think that's the idea the movie was conveying. As for the title itself, it's really pretty interesting. "Eraserhead" refers to the term 'erase your head,' which means to get rid of any awareness or consciousness of what you're doing. Something Lynch must have done when he was writing the script.
The story centers around Henry Spencer (Jack Nence) who lives in a world that either resembles a nightmare or a different dimension. His days revolve around walking around his industrial town, and sitting in his small quiet apartment suspiciously observing every angle as if he's never been there. He's told that his girlfriend (?) awaits him at her house for dinner, and with hesitation he joins her, again, in an awkward suspicious way. The girlfriend, named Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) lives with her parents and grandmother who follow lifestyles of some impulsive serial killers. After Henry finds out that he and girlfriend Mary X have a premature baby, he falls head first into a world of mayhem, delusion, and sexual provisions. His girlfriend gives birth to a mutant baby, and leaves him to take care of it by himself.
"Eraserhead" is really unique, but over-stylized and pretentiously dangerous. In the world we live in today, an audience will fall in love with any movie that has some level of cult status. While I'll agree that the directing is superb, especially on such a low budget, the story itself lacks any drive. Albeit the movie has a massive creepy feel to it, from the subtle build up of bizarre sound effects to the sinister-like score, it leaves you empty and cold asking yourself what you had just seen. I've never been one to hold a good deep screenplay that leaves you thinking for hours against the movie, but in this case there's just way too much false instinctiveness.
The mutant baby is a motif that the movie attempts to force in order for us to feel scared and shocked. And in the center of it all, the baby looks more like a dinosaur than a disfigured, dream-like figure. Then there's the "creepy" girl who sings a song about life in heaven, which Henry listens to for comfort. Her presence is almost unnecessary and oblique, making you tilt your head back more asking "why?" is this a film that observes the life of one man? Did he suffer from a traumatic experience? We don't know, and director-writer David Lynch seems to think we don't care. The movie opens up with a scene of what seems to be an asteroid and an overlapping image of Henry floating around. He then wakes up on the road and sets out in Chaplin-like posture, passing and dismissing anything out of the ordinary. In one scene, he invites his next door neighbor in and lets her seduce him into sleeping with her. They then end up in Henry's bed, falling deep into what seems to be water. A pretentious goof might say it's an excellent way of showing sexual desire and an atmosphere that seems to give Henry the relaxing feeling he's always wanted. I say it's the first thing that popped into Lynch's head.
Half way through, I looked at my watch asking if it'll be over soon. Really, you don't have to watch the rest to get the basic idea of the whole thing. However I stuck around for the beautiful cinematography and excellent underrated directing. Lynch uses his camera and works with it like an Axe murderer would with a good victim. He separates reality with non-diegetic sound that the main character can actually hear, and really knows how to handle the framing in each shot.
I watched the extra features and David Lynch put into words what I thought was a true representation of this film: "I have no idea how the idea came to me, or when it came to me". How could you? It's completely random and spontaneous. It also suffers from a weak ending, Henry gives up and murders his baby only to see the little asteroid -- or his shell of life -- burst and explode, leaving him to go into heaven with the strange butt-face girl who sings in his radiator. Well, problem solved, kill the itch and join peace for eternity. I think that's the idea the movie was conveying. As for the title itself, it's really pretty interesting. "Eraserhead" refers to the term 'erase your head,' which means to get rid of any awareness or consciousness of what you're doing. Something Lynch must have done when he was writing the script.