The Grandmother (1970) User Reviews

Stands on its own as a great, surreal and dark, short.

[Ben_Cheshire · 8/10 · 22 April 2004]

One of the most disturbing things i've ever seen. The actors in this film, David Lynch's third film technically, but his first narrative film, were never in any other movies - one of them, Father, died a few years ago - it is as if they exist only in the frightening nightmare world of this boy's life, which consists of two dog-like parents who only bark at him with unintelligible sounds, and beat him and rub his face in the urine when he wets the bed, like a puppy. The subject of the film (and if i don't tell you this, it'll make so little sense to you, because its never properly explained in the film) is the boy has no love from his parents, and no grandmother to give him respite from them and comfort him, so he grows one in the attic.

It is a horrifying, brilliant film, which creates an imaginative world very successfully - albeit one you desparately want to escape from as soon as possible, but it does this well at least.

The Lynchian oeuvre is almost fully formed here, right from the start. Little dialogue, atmospheric soundtrack of constant sound effects which you find in Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr; impressionistic approach to performance and makeup/costume and sets; the quality of estrangement in the direction, and most importantly there is the union of terrible, twisted darkness and optimistic naivety (developed to the full in Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr).

For Lynch fans, this is a thing to see. Unlike Six Men Getting Sick or The Amputee, this is not just an experiment or an early film of a Director that ruins your impression of them, it stands on its own, irrespective of Lynch's subsequent work (though it also sets the tone for his subsequent narrative work) as a great surrealist/impressionist narrative short.

A strange film about a boy who grows a grandmother

[Red-Barracuda · 8/10 · 24 January 2012]

After the promise shown in The Alphabet, David Lynch directed this half-hour feature which expanded upon the tones and aesthetics found in that short film. In many ways The Grandmother is a precursor to Eraserhead. Like the latter it's a surrealistic nightmare about dysfunctional people. A young boy is terrorised by his parents. They abuse him for his chronic bed-wetting. So he plants a seed in a pile of dirt in a room upstairs in his house. This in turn grows into a huge plant that gives birth to an older woman; the grandmother. She forms a loving bond with the boy, giving him the companionship he craves.

The film combines live action with animation as did The Alphabet. Except now the live action is more predominant. The content of the film is unashamedly and consistently surreal and is an early showcase for Lynch's bizarre ideas. Both visually and aurally the film is very off-kilter. All the characters have white-painted faces, which stand out in a disconcerting way due to the high-contrast photography and black backgrounds. The strange imagery is complimented by an odd soundtrack where the characters talk in animal-like noises. The parents are so alien to the boy that they literally bark at him.

Like Lynch's other work this is a film that combines the disturbing with the beautiful. Often at the same time. The story isn't really the point here. This is all about mood and atmosphere. It's an essential see for David Lynch fans and an excellent short film.

I honestly don't know quite what to think of this one, truthfully...

[Polaris_DiB · 7/10 · 10 February 2006]

Okay. Basically I have only one major thematic element I can really comment on.

In this short, Lynch seems to be particularly keen on dehumanizing humanity in every sense of the word. First, they characters are grown as plants, and they germinate (?) children rather than birth them. Then they're animals, both in personality and actions. Beyond just barking and snuffling and whining like dogs (Matt! Matt! Matt!), the way they treat each other is very abusive and inhuman.

So then what's this whole thing about the grandmother? Is she supposed to be more human because of the love she shares with Matt? That's the reading that's readily apparent, but it doesn't really work out like that. If she was human, why is she a teakettle? Why does she birth, literally, from a tree? The short goes to levels that are hard to really comprehend.

Which is fine. Fully comprehending a Lynch film isn't really the point.

However, I would like to mention that this short has some of the strongest imagery, in a sense, of Lynch's career. The shots especially of the staircase just scream art even though they really aren't that particularly stylistic as compared to a lot of what else he's done. This is a much more aesthetically intriguing world, this short.

--PolarisDiB

Like waking up from a strange nightmare!

[NateManD · 10/10 · 12 August 2005]

"The Grandmother" has got to be one of the strangest works of David Lynch next to "Eraserhead". In order to get the film made, Lynch got a grant from the American Film Institute. Too bad AFI doesn't fund amazing films like this anymore. In some aspects the film looks like it had a huge influence on "Begotten" (1991), except "The Grandmother" is only about 34 minutes and never wears out it's welcome. The story concerns a boy, who has very mean and abusive parents. They act like animals and only talk in barks. The little boy is very pale and Gothic looking, and almost all the film's sets are painted pitch black in darkness. This causes images to pop right out. The boy plants seeds in his bed, a huge abstract stump like object grows and gives birth to an old lady. The old lady seems to give the boy peace of mind, like a grandmother would. It's really hard to tell the exact story, since the film feels like a surreal nightmare that leaves the viewer disoriented. The music and experimental sound mix sounded way ahead of 1970. This only added more impact to it's disturbing imagery. Not to mention, it had some weird animated scenes too. From all the movies I've seen, I'd have to say the best examples of surrealism in film have to be Bunuel and Dali's "Un Chien Andalou", Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain" (1973) and David Lynch's "The Grandmother". All three of these films have images that will probably haunt you for the rest of your life.

Interesting forerunner to Eraserhead

[Michael_Cronin · 19 October 2003]

Long-time Lynch collaborator Jack Nance once said that watching The Grandmother was like spending half an hour in the electric chair. Mixing live action (both colour and black & white) with animation, along with a dark & unsettling soundscape created by Alan Splet (still Lynch's sound designer today, three decades later), the film is an intensely disturbing experience.

The Grandmother deals with the story of a boy, abused by his brutal, animal-like parents, who grows himself a kindly grandmother in the attic.

Although it does suffer from a certain 'student film' feeling, this half-hour short is a must-see for all fans of David Lynch, particularly those who admire the stark & surreal world of Eraserhead. One can definitely see the genesis of Lynch's next film within it.

And?

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 26 September 2004]

I don't know if I was bored by this film because it isn't very good or because the images were stolen by later films. This film reminds me of other films like Forbidden Zone, Begotten and Lynch's own Eraserhead, all of which play better than this story of a boy who grows a Grandmother.

How do you really critique the film? I've seen it before isn't fair especially when this might be the source of what I saw before. It would be like disliking Citizen Kane because it isn't revolutionary in modern eyes.

Try it. It can't hurt. The only thing you really have to lose is 34 minutes of your life, certainly seeing this is better than watching yet another Seinfeld episode.

Another nightmare from David Lynch

[preppy-3 · 10/10 · 15 September 2006]

Sick, disturbing and surreal short from David Lynch. A man and a woman get married and have a son who they don't really want. The child grows up being horribly abused by his parents. Then, in a dark sinister room, he plants a seed who sprouts into a grandmother. She, in a way, shows him the affection his parents never gave him. There's more but I won't spoil it.

The film mixes live actors with animation seamlessly. It has sound but no dialogue--the actors just make sounds somewhat like human speech. It's in washed-out color which certainly fits the subject matter. Also you see Lynch using odd noises on the soundtrack which he perfected years later with "Eraserhead". I'm giving this film a 10 but it is VERY disturbing. It's definitely not for everybody. The abuse scenes are horrible to watch and the nonstop morbidness did start to wear on me, but I couldn't stop watching. It all leads to a very sad ending. Sick, troubling and (at times) horrifying movie but just incredible. A 10 but only for those who can stand extreme subject matter.

For Lynch fans only

[Andyp-4 · 7/10 · 1 April 1999]

A short film well worth seeing for those interested in the Lynch oevre. The Grandmother is set in an eerily silent world, reminiscent of Eraserhead, which is punctuated by violent screaming. The stark contrasts throughout the film make for an unsettling experience. Recommended only for those hoping to uncover some secrets about David Lynch (whether you will find them or not is highly questionable!)

Cinematography all the way

[kyra-6 · 10/10 · 15 November 2003]

This film is a lesson. A lesson on how you can, with minor means,

create a work which explores all ways of cinematography. And this

without any dialogue. In my idea films are not there to tell a story

(they can be used as such tough) and this movie goes straight

back to the time where films were shown at carnivals and gave you

a glimpse of new worlds to be explored. Don't worry too much about the (lack of) narritive story. Just sit back

and enjoy the huge amount of emotions that will come to you.

Fear, hatred, love and desire for a better world.

Creepy little art-house film

[jamesrupert2014 · 6/10 · 12 October 2017]

David Lynch brings us an unsettling vision of a bed-wetting boy, his abusive parents, and the grandmother that he grows from a seed. The film, which toggles between live action and animation (reminiscent of Terry Gilliam), is dark, organic and surreal, especially when the 'grandmother seed' germinates into a spiky, phallic mushroom, growing from a pile of dirt centered on an old-fashioned bed. Reversing normal progression, the grandmother is pulled from the womb, fully dressed, by the child, who then engages in revenge fantasies against his parents following an incredibly unappetizing dinner scene. Best watched at night, in the dark for full effect, "The Grandmother" is a series of strange, and sometimes unpleasant, images strung together by the barest of stories. Not for all tastes but a must for fans of Lynch or of experimental filmmaking in general. My ranking is based on neither really liking nor really disliking the film, but probably not really 'getting it' either. Maybe you will...

Definitely improved, but still not that good

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 October 2013]

Let me start by saying that I'm certainly not the greatest David Lynch fan under the sun, especially not when it comes to his very early short films, so my expectations weren't too high to begin with. In the end, it was pretty much what I expected. As weird and surreal as always, with a couple good scenes, but as a whole rather underwhelming. It's Lynch's third film and definitely far superior at least to his first about several men getting sick. The story has some heart when a boy who gets abused verbally and physically by his parents plants a seed that grows into a caring grandmother, who smiles at the little one and gives him the emotional security he's been looking for.

Occasionally it's an interesting mix of live action and animation and I liked the contrast between the B&W-scenes and the several shades of red, mostly related to blood. It started dragging a bit near the 25-minute mark, so I'm not sure the quite long running time was justified for the script, but I can't deny that some factors made it interesting again by adding general weirdness like the decent make-up work or the music, especially the song "You are my best friend." Nonetheless, while it's probably a feast for Lynch lovers, for me it was okay at best and certainly not eye-opening to his work.

an exciting, bizarre-bravura turn of pushing-the-boundaries-of cinema

[Quinoa1984 · 9/10 · 12 June 2006]

The Grandmother, like other surreal short films (and, of course, like the rest of Lynch's work), is not that concerned with logic, at least in conventional terms. If there is anything at all conventional about the the film is that it has at its core that small statement on youth and innocence that can be interpreted a hundred ways to Sunday- if you're lonely and dejected you'll look for companionship. It's just that in this case the conventional wisdom of finding someone at the playground or at school is bypassed- here the boy, in isolation from his barking, mad parents, plants and grows a grandmother to spend time with. But is it all as it should be? Lynch, much as he did with Eraserhead, leaves so much up to interpretation that on a first viewing it's almost not even necessary to find something coherent in what goes on. But in that sense, of course, many will likely be befuddled, disturbed, and maybe even offended at the lack of typical cohesion from start to finish.

What it does provide, however, is a kind of cinema experience that has to be felt, seen, heard, taken in as cinema on the technical and artistic side of things always goes. Even when I didn't know what was "going on" with the boy and his grandmother and parents, I didn't mind as long as I knew Lynch was doing something with the camera or lighting or editing or music or animation or all of the above to make it a visceral experience. Yes, there are some tedious moments here and there (which, even in being a 35 minute short film, are possibly more so than the ones in Eraserhead), yes the first two to three minutes takes some time to adjust to, and yes there ending is left about as ambiguous as can be. But it shook me up all the same, like the best parts of 90's music videos. Any time, for example, that Lynch used a sort of stop-motion technique during the live action I was thrilled in a way. The animated sequences have a crude quality that could only be matched by Gilliam's Python animations. And the actors (or maybe just pieces) in Lynch's macabre framing and set ups and pay off seem all perfect for the parts.

If you're already a fan coming on to this DVD set of Lynch short films, this may or may not come as the most eccentric, wonderfully outrageous of the lot of them; it could also be for some the most 'huh' of all of the films as it is the longest and with the most density in the surrealism. It is the mark, interested in it or not, of an artist leaving something out for a good look and soak into what it is or could be or is lacking. Grade: A

The best Lynch short movie yet

[Groverdox · 7/10 · 19 September 2023]

"The Grandmother", at thirty-three minutes, was the longest short movie David Lynch had yet made, after "Six Men Being Sick" and "The Alphabet", which both only went for a few minutes. Like "The Alphabet", it combines animation with live action, and there are some interesting touches that seem to bridge the gap between the two, e.g. Some of the footage is deliberately jerky as though the actors are moving in stop-motion.

The movie also has a plot, which couldn't be said for either of the director's previous movies: a boy chronically wets his bed, which isn't surprising considering the traumatic situation he is forced to live in, with abusive parents. For some reason the urine stain on his white sheet is too orange to be healthy urine and looks like a map of Japan. Is this another attempt to make live action look like animation? Anyway, his brutish father often grabs him and rubs his face in the stain.

He finds seeds, plants them, and grows himself a grandmother. The seen where the grandmother is "born" out of what looks like compost is kind of gross.

I'm not sure how the story ends. I don't know if it really does. Perhaps I just didn't understand it, or wasn't paying attention.

When you watch a director's early movies you look for threads that connect them with their more famous work. "The Alphabet" showed Lynch's talent for conveying joy in experimentation, as does "The Grandmother", I suppose. But what I found more impressive than that was that it showcases his ability to make the truly bizarre and surreal emotionally affecting. That's one of his true gifts.

embryonic David Lynch

[mjneu59 · 5/10 · 24 November 2010]

Before directing his breakthrough cult classic 'Eraserhead' David Lynch made this thirty-minute art school oddity, sketching on a smaller canvas the same nightmares that would later haunt his feature films. Using a raw, experimental style combining exaggerated live action with naive animation, Lynch flaunts his preoccupation with psychosexual imagery and symbolism, showing all the creative freedom (and many of the pretensions) of an artist discovering his true medium. Yes, the film does have a plot, but it's not really about a boy and his grandmother, any more than 'Eraserhead' was about a man and his baby. Shown on the same program (when I saw it, at the Red Vic Theatre on Haight Street in San Francisco) was the eight-minute animated 'Alphabet', another early Lynch project, and definitely not the sort of pre-school primer taught on Sesame Street. Viewers familiar with his more recent work will know exactly what to expect.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD: One of the greatest short films in existence

[Avant-garde_Addict · 29 July 2004]

David Lynch's The Grandmother is a 34-minute-long experimental nightmare. The absurdly dark, ominous visuals suggest the film is set inside a madman's nightmare, though it actually refers to the nuclear American family gone horribly wrong. Dialogue-free except for primal grunting and barking, The Grandmother is carried solely through dramatic acting and striking visuals. The soundtrack is cramped with white noise such as discordant grating, creaking and droning that compliments the already disturbing atmosphere. Lynch mixes hand-drawn animation with live-action in an effort to create a world as disturbing as it is surreal.

The film's four characters remain nameless, appearing to be generic symbols.

The Boy, whom the narrative centers on, is neglected and abused by his parents who treat him like an unwanted nuisance. They literally bark, growl, and crawl on all fours, symbolizing their distance from being human. All of the actors are caked with white powder makeup that causes their skin to glow brightly amidst the ultra-high contrast photography. The Boy's only attire is a black tuxedo with a bow tie, which combined with his solemn, pain-stricken face suggests he is attending an eternal funeral. Perhaps the Boy is dressed for his own funeral, because his life appears to be 'dead' on a symbolic level. The Father always wears a stained, moth-eaten white undershirt with equally dreadful boxer shorts. The photography is so high contrast that you often only see the Boy's stark white face and hands 'floating' around the pitch black background. On the opposite spectrum, the Father's bright clothes appear to jump out of the darkness, making his presence dominant and obvious.

Despite the abstractness of The Grandmother, several themes appear evident. The Boy expresses the loneliness and pain that accompanies a household with abusive and neglectful parents. The Grandmother character, who the Boy secretly grows from a plant-like seed in the attic, symbolizes warmth and comfort. The Boy both figuratively and literally 'grows' a parental figure, comparing the growth of love to that of a plant. The Boy's actions suggest that love should be treated like growing a plant: you first plant the seed, then nurture it until it matures into something full and complete.

After much attention and care, the Boy's plant grows into a massive, pulsating cocoon out of which the Grandmother crawls from, fully clothed and aged. The Boy and Grandmother immediately embrace and offer each other much-needed comfort. His world seems brighter for the time being, but his living nightmare is far from over. Ultimately, nothing lasts forever, as this film appears to suggest.

The Grandmother is highly recommended for fans of the avant-garde, or anyone looking for something different. If you thought Eraserhead was Lynch's darkest and weirdest film, wait until you see this small miracle.

Lynchian vibe meets with his technique at earliest

[kino_avantgarde · 8/10 · 18 September 2022]

The Grandmother, Lynch's short film, shot thanks to the $5,000 he earned from the American Film Institute after his two previous attempts at motion picture-film transitions (Six Men Getting Sick Six Times and Alphabet). He also shot two more shorts in this period, with the titles Absurd Encounter with Fear and The Amputee.

The short film tells a lot about Lynch cinema with the motifs it contains throughout its 34-minute duration, which we will encounter frequently in his next films. The surrealist elements and symbols bear significant resemblances specifically to his first feature, Eraserhead.

It is also worth mentioning the sound and visuals that make the film so impressive. Repetitive humming and high-pitched sound elements create a chaotic and uncanny backdrop (by the way, let's add that Lynch continues in his next films with the sound director of this film). Colors, on the other hand, are almost the complement of this uncanny environment, the house is painted black, everything is black except for a few objects - and a few colored objects are of course a symbol of something. And the faces, the pale turned faces with corpse paint make-up, the lynch-like elements and the camera angle. Expressions and the reflection of the face on the screen in almost all of his works -close-ups/angles- are characteristic features of Lynch's filmography.

Let's examine the vibe the movie spreads, as well as the the technique: the mood wanders around the borders of madness, the exaggeration in the expression of emotions. The boy appearently lacks his mother's love and his father's care & attention, instead receives humiliate and punishement all the time. That's the very reason why him growin up yearning for being loved and as a result creating his own care-giver, "grandmother" as a figure that can reflect both the parental love as well as oedipal conflict. Of course, it would be appropriate to observe the relations between mother-child, father-child, mother-father, child-grandmother separately and as a whole at the same time.

Dark,Mysterious, Confusing, but Original

[MatthewTHuff · 7/10 · 24 November 2013]

The Grandmother in my opinion was a surrealistic look on some childhood experiences. The caring grandmother, the abusive parents, and the realistic look on life. The film in imagery has no real sense in direction, but what is known is that in todays society this movie could relate to some kids living with there grandparents or liking their grandparents better then there abusive parents. Contrast B W, and the overall small shades of red are by far a great start off to this film, and i thought that the eerie, yet happy music " with the grandmother further down into the short" , was a perfect placement and added great emotion to the film. I loved this short even with some mess ups and overall confusion.

David Lynch never gets old and his original imaginations overthrow many horror and artistic surrealism films today. From what i could tell you is that this film overall had me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next scene, or some confusing event to just throw itself right in front of me. The actors were plain out abusive, and the short yet sweet scriptwriting was written exactly how i thought it would be. Without doubt David Lynch has brightened my day… Well or brightened it in a horrifying, disruptive kind of way.

An amazing (and disturbing) masterpiece

[Zarathustras_Crown · 10/10 · 10 December 2000]

Just recently saw this film along with "The Alphabet"...One of the most disconcerting Lynch films I've ever seen...but incredibly brilliant...the portrayal of the animalistic sides of the human psyche, and the "touching of the grandmother" scenes are quite unique...overall, I highly recommend this short film for anyone interested in film as an art. Extra kudo's to those who see the psychological metaphors throughout the film.

A cracking 'film'

[info-6479 · 9/10 · 14 November 2005]

I saw this very late one night when I was about 12 years old...I couldn't sleep so I watched this and it was so creepy I still couldn't sleep once it had finished! They say the boy is Lynch and his childhood experiences. To me, his Grandmother represented the love and security he craved and needed. Although she comforts him, her comfort is at times suffocating. I particularly remember that her huge chest smothers him and part of him hates her and fears her. He secretly hopes for her death and keeps putting mirrors over her face whilst she sleeps to check if she is still breathing. I'd recommend this to all Lynch fans and anyone who wants to see a sinister film which has little if no dialogue, no colour, no pure narrative, just mood, art and plenty of Lynch genius. I can't recall how it ends but having not seen the film for over 16 years I think that's fair enough. I would like to see it again though, if anyone knows how I can get hold of it..?

WTF

[carkent1-1 · 5/10 · 19 May 2020]

Any single second of this film's cinematography is immediately recognizable as the work of the creative mind of David Lynch.



It is like watching a nightmare: odd, disturbing, pointless. It is ostensibly about an abused child who grows a grandmother so he can have a comforting

presence in his dysfunctional family. The entire 33 minutes is an exercise in visual and aural ugliness. Everyone is in white makeup; the boy is formally dressed resembling Emcee in Cabaret. When the family sits down to eat, plastic bags of bread are strewn on the table, an unlit electric lamp takes up most of the tablespace (candles may have looked too pretty). Any furniture visible in the stark high contrast cinematography is thrift-store trash. Although it has sound, it is mostly atonal noise and shrieks. Although it is a live-action film, there is animation (more ugliness); although it is in black and white, there are colors, the most pronounced being dark yellow urine stains. (This poor kid must need a urologist.) Urine in this movie is about as profuse as blood is in The Shining.

The grandmother who grows quickly out of a bulb, smiles sometimes, but since that is about it for her as a contrast to the shouting monosyllabic parents, she isn't that much of a comfort. She mostly lies in her bed of dirt--but isn't that the same bed the boy wets all the time? Oh, well, dreams don't have to make sense.

The surreal look is peppered with stop-motion cinematography, so Lynchian. But it is only "enjoyable" as an example of his style. This is to be seen by film-students, not audiences seeking escapism. The reaction is meant to be less "Hooray for Hollywood" and more "WTF!"

Wonderful

[Scars_Remain · 10/10 · 12 August 2008]

The best David Lynch short I've seen so far is definitely The Grandmother and I am blown away. Each one I see gets better and I still have a few to go. Hopefully that pattern continues. The Grandmother is so extremely well done and so beautiful and it was with a grant and an 8 page script. It's things like this that really makes me think that I might be able to make a real film someday. The feel of this movie is so unique and creepy. I love how Lynch lets us know exactly who his characters are without them saying a single word. This film is definitely a great example of that and of how anyone can do what they set out to do. See this right now if you like David Lynch!

Weirdest movie I've ever seen

[kuuipo829 · 5/10 · 16 September 2006]

My college roommate and I were flipping through channels last night, and were suddenly startled by the image of a pale boy in a suit with seemingly bloodied teeth, looking through a bag to find a seed that was whistling to him. Yeah, we were so flabbergasted by the whole thing that we were in one of those situations where you want to look away, but you can't! We watched it until the "thing" began growing out of his bed and then had to change it because we were getting too freaked out. I really don't understand this movie, but I'm totally curious to see the rest of it! Does anyone who's seen it think it'll give us nightmares tonight, because I think it might. My suggestion: definitely worth checking out! But be prepared to lie awake at night contemplating it.

A Powerful and real look of childhood

[gordon_cole · 31 May 2001]

No matter how cynical you make think this film is, it is very realistic in what our world looks like as children. Dysfunctional families are all around us and we experience neglect very often. A child's point of view of course, is always exaggerated. I can relate to some of what is shown in "The Grandmother." Throughout my childhood my grandmother was the only person i could turn to. My parents talk, and their life during my childhood was very blurred to me. And the horrifying things that happen are more horrifying than they really are as a child. Lynch may have imaged this film out of nowhere, but it still speaks. The use of sound, and animation is powerfully effective. This is a must for Lynch fans!

Long Before Eraserhead, There Was...

[druid333-2 · 8/10 · 26 February 2010]

David Lynch,who started out as a painter,moved into conceptual art,then moved into film,first with a piece that involved six animated heads vomiting something like six times (Six Figures Getting Sick). He then moved on to his first short film,'Alphabet',some time later. In 1970,he directed his second short film,'The Grandmother'. To call this film short surreal would be like calling the Grand Canyon vast. 'Grandmother' told the tale of a young boy (played by Richard White,who is just credited as "The boy"),who has to deal with two of the most dysfunctional parents (Virginia Maitland & Robert Chadwick),who crawl around on all fours,bark & whine like a pair of dogs,and make the boy's existence sheer hell. The boy figures there must be something better out there,and from a seed found in a bag marked "seeds" plants the biggest one,from which a kind of spiny vegetation sprouts. When the vegetation/plant gives birth to a full term,adult grandmother (Dorthy McGinnis),the boy now has some kind of link to parental love. David Lynch,in addition to writing & directing this bizarre,dreamy (and occasionally nightmarish),surreal film,also photographs,edits,creates stop motion animation & has a hand in the sound design (with Alan Splet,who also worked with Lynch on Eraserhead). Not widely screened,but well worth seeking out for fans of experimental/avant garde/midnight cult films (it was shot in 16mm,which would somewhat limit it's distribution to cinemas that are equipped for films of that nature). Not rated by the MPAA,but does have some rather unsettling,if not outright disturbing sequences that would give some young 'uns some screwed up nightmares.

The story broke my heart

[matthewchristopherdavidson · 8/10 · 19 May 2020]

A kid is abused by his parents. He wets the bed because he is abused. Because he wets the bed, he is abused further.

He grows a plant which becomes a grandmother. The grandmother is safe. His parents are not safe.

The animations reminded me of Terry Gilliam, but much darker. Especially effective is a scene in which he fantasizes about his parents' death.

His environment is savage and full of noise. The sound design and music are very jarring and convey a sense of chaos.

This film was very evocative for me. I wouldn't say I liked it or recommend it but I think it is very well done and an important film in Lynch's evolution, it will help you see better understand Eraserhead. Side trivia, it was the first film for which he received a grant.