David Lynch’s 1977 debut featureEraserheadis a Frankenstein’s monster ofKafkaesque surrealism, a trauma-inducing interrogation of parental fears and a disturbing depiction of fatherhood.Eraserheadis the nightmarish result of a visionary and obsessive filmmaker.Eraserheaddebuted at The Filmex Film Festival without any significant promotionfor the film, leaving crowds of moviegoers stunned at the bizarre and feverish nightmare they’d witnessed. The film takes us on a deep dive into the subconscious of David Lynch, and it reflects his place in life at the time of shooting. In the movie, fatherhood and the emotions that tie us to responsibility and family are presented as a trap for the protagonist and focuses on him navigating a fringe land of Lynch’s imagination.
Initially, Fox had funded another project calledGardenbackwith an investment of $50,000. They had a stipulation that Lynch extend the story into a feature-length script.Despite assistance from writersGil DennisandTony Vellani, Lynch grew frustrated and angry trying to adapt to narrative screenwriting and prepared to throw in the towel. But the studio liked his work and agreed to a future collaboration with the director — the next project would becomeEraserhead. The movie was championed byThe Pope of Trash John WatersandHR Gigeralso praised the movie’s artistic meritdespite controversy followingAlien’srelease.
Jack Nanceportrayed the character of Henry Spencer, a man with a perpetually shocked expression, a funeral parlor suit and a shock of tormented hair. The story opens with Henry floating in space while The Man in the Planet (Jack Fisk) sits by a window, contemplating the universe from a shack on an asteroid before he pulls a lever. We are then offered a view of Henry’s world: severe buildings, concrete corridors, and the ghosts of industry before Henry enters his depressing apartment.Herbert Cardwell’s(who would later be replaced byFrederik Elmes) camerawork is claustrophobic, and it gives the impression of a net closing in on Henry. Visually, narrow hallways, rickety elevators, and the cluttered room Henry inhabits add a thematic depth and visual cues to both the narrative and Henry’s frame of mind. Themes of circumstance and confinement recur throughout. These scenes are accompanied by a dissident score: composed of heightened sounds of industry, animals, and silence. Henry is meeting Mary X’s (Charlotte Stewart) parents: Mr. X (Allen Joseph) and Mrs. X (Jeanne Bates) and they sit down to a dinner of pulsating, gooey chicken before Mrs. X calls Henry to one side. She questions him on his personal relationship with Mary before trying to seduce him. She insists that Henry and Mary X need to get married and pick up their mutant baby from the hospital.
The successive scenes feature Mary feeding the child, overlapping with its animal-like mewling and sounds of heavy rain. Again Lynch relies heavily on stark lighting, external sounds, and Nance’s performance to instill a mood in the viewer: one of dissociative unease and distance while simultaneously being a suffocating experience. Despite the absurdist, nightmarish tone of the movie,Eraserhead’sstructure is more simple than Lynch’s subsequent movies/TV shows, wth the exception ofBlue VelvetandWild at Heart.Eraserheadadheres to a pretty linear narrative and doesn’t veer too far from its core story. The plot is straightforward, although opaque (this is David Lynch) in parts, concerning one man’s place in the world and fulfilling a role (or roles) assigned to him by fate. A later dream sequence involving a severed head is where the film gets its title from. The movie wasa favorite of renowned film criticRoger Ebert: “The script is a brilliant mixture of narrative and experimental structure that provides just enough storytelling points to give viewers something to hang on to, at least in the early going, before completely subsuming them with its more avant-garde moments later on.”
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The movie had a small but dedicated crew who were committed to making Lynch’s vision a reality.Doreen Small’sproduction management and props work really emphasizes the strangeness of an ordinary situation via a Lynchian lens. In later work patterned carpets, a suburban aesthetic, and diffuse lighting would become mainstays in several Lynch productions, includingTwin PeaksandLost Highway. During night shoots, if the production needed props,Lynch would go out and sift through garbage until he found what he was looking for. Borrowing money from friends and family often sleeping on the set and working as a paperboy between night shoots, Lynch worked hard and consistently over a five-year period, despite financial constraints and a fractious personal life. The director had to wear many hats to keep the production going. “But of course, he was doing everything except cinematography and sound,” saidCharlotte Stewart when discussing Lynch’s work ethic. “He had two other students at the time doing the sound and working camera. I mean David did everything — he built all the props, he painted the set. He lived in the set apparently for some time.”
One of the most distinctive elements of the enigmatic movie is the score.Alan Splet’s sound design and score incorporated real-world noises, heightened and amplified — weaving hissing pipes, distressed animals and industrial discord into the movie. Unlike the dreamlike vocals of future collaboratorJulee Cruiseor the operaticAngelo Badalamenti,Splet’s dissident score inspires discomfort. Another facet adding an acute strangeness to the film is Frederick Elmes’shadowy cinematography. Recalling silent-era filmmaking, it lends the film a sophisticated dimension. Most of the preproduction for the film was done at a remote stables that doubled as sound and editing rooms, with Nance and Lynch working on intense rehearsals prior to shooting scenes for the film.Franz Kafkawas a guiding influence for the director and he’d use the bible as inspiration during filming.
The Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near) is the being symbolizing Henry’s repressionalthough Lynch claimed inLynch on Lynchshe was the result of a sketch he had done.
All this would factor into Lynch creating his liminal, nowhere place and secure his legacy in cinematic history.
