Film Review - Eraserhead 1977

Fig. 1 Eraserhead Film Poster

Director David Lynch in 1977 wrote, directed and produced his first motion picture Eraserhead. When Eraserhead was first released it baffled many critics but become a cult classic with its body-horror and mind blowing surrealism. “The central concept of boy-meets-girl-has-mutant-baby is still the subject of American Gothic nightmares and Lynch’s repertoire of soft squelches, thin skins, horrible blobs and panicky gestures remains an enduring archetype of puritan sexual disgust.” (Beard, 2006)

Eraserhead is set in the heart of an industrial centre. Henry is a printer who is taking some vacation time away from his job at the factory. When Henry returns home with his bags of shopping. His neighbour across from his apartment informs him that his girlfriend Mary X was here and that he has invited him to dinner with her and her family. He spends most of his days inside his bare apartment staring intently at the steaming radiator. That creates sharp and hissing noise’s which is continuously heard in Henry’s apartment. Within his apartment itself there are large clumps of grass spread around the room. As well as a dying plant sitting in a pile of mud on his nightstand. Also a framed picture of a nuclear explosion hung on the wall above his bed.

Fig. 2 Eraserhead Film Still

The evening strangeness grows from the time Henry arrives outside of Mary’s house. He is disturbed by the awkward conversation of her mother and the strange fits that Mary herself has. At the dinner table, Henry is puzzled by an emotional outburst by Mary's mother, the disconnected conversation by her father. And bizarre of all is the miniature man-made roasted chicken which kicks on his plate every time Henry goes to cut it. After dinner Henry is cornered by Mary's mother, who attempts to kiss him before telling him that Mary has had a premature pregnancy. A tearful Mary insists that the hospital does not know whether it was even a baby.

Mary and the baby move into Henry's one-room apartment. The baby is hideously deformed and looks nothing like a human. Henry and Mary constantly struggle with caring for their baby. A hysterical Mary temporarily leaves for home one night due to her inability to sleep with the whining baby. Left to care for the baby by himself, Henry becomes involved in a series of strange events these include bizarre encounters with the Lady in the Radiator, a sexual liaison with his neighbour.

Upon hearing the baby crying Henry retrieves a pair of scissors. He hesitates, then cautiously cuts open the bandages wrapped around the baby's body. Henry finds that the bandages were the only thing keeping the baby's internal organs together. The body splits open and the baby's vital organs are exposed. Rather than dying, the baby continues to convulse in pain, causing Henry to turn away in disgust. The last scene features Henry being embraced by the Lady in the Radiator.

Fig. 3 Eraserhead FIlm Still

There are many major themes and metaphors that make up the dark core of this film. Firstly one of the major themes that runs throughout the film is sex. And Eraserhead is filled with suggestive image of sexual activity and intercourse. The way that “Director David Lynch plays with a good deal of sexual imagery and the most likely thing that Eraserhead is about is sexual and procreative disgust.” (Scheib, 2010) With this Lynch was able to create a film that instils the fear of sex, with his nightmarish and haunting imagery.

Lynch has admitted in past interviews that the fear of fatherhood is an important theme in Eraserhead. The film seems to be shot around the horror of raising a child as well as being left with an unwanted child. In the opening moments we see what seems to be Henry, floating through space dreaming with some kind of sperm shape animal emerges from his mouth. This could be seen as a symbol of the birth of his child. Lynch has made the birth of a child which is usually looked upon as a joyous moment and twisted in into a horrible event. Eraserhead view on Birth and parenthood is well directed that it will send a chill up your spine.

Fig.4 Eraserhead Film Still

Another intriguing theme that occurs in Eraserhead is that of dark and the dark hold it has on our lives. It’s displayed throughout the film in various ways. The fact that Lynch Gothically shot his film in black and white adds to the feeling of decay. As well Henry’s apartment is filled with images of death. With rotten plants and piles of rotting grass spread around the apartment. In Eraserhead we see that sex has been depicted as more of a negative aspect of life than a pleasing one. He has done the same with death, turning it into something that Henry will find more pleasurable than his bleak life he was living.

Fig.5 Eraserhead Film Still

Eraserhead greatest achievement is showing the audience that good and evil in everyone and everything. Lynch was able to do this with some wired and disturbing images. But the most important part of this film is that “The audience is forced to see everything they fear become objects of love and everything they hold dear twisted into something unrecognizable.” (Cruz, 2010) The Thing with Lynch’s Eraserhead is that everything in this world had two natures.

Lynch is a master at creating images and scenes that are impossible to explain or even understand. “Eraserhead was David Lynch’s first feature length film, and it’s the real thing: raw, uncompromised, more visceral than anything he’s done since.” (Kermode, 2006) Making Eraserhead a film that is impossible to forget quickly or even to forget at all.

List of Illustrations

Figure 1 - Erasorhead (1977) Erasorhead Film Poster.

http://www.myuca.ucreative.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=null&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_13549_1%26url%3D (Accessed on 03/01/2011)

Figure 2 - Erasorhead (1977) Erasorhead Film Still.

http://lagraphicdesign.wordpress.com/category/movies/ (Accessed on 03/01/2011)

Figure 4 - Erasorhead (1977) Erasorhead Film Still.

http://cinemastu.blogspot.com/2010/03/eraserhead-david-lynch-1977.html (Accessed on 03/01/2011)

Figure 5 - Erasorhead (1977) Erasorhead Film Still.

http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/28312518/p1/ (Accessed on 03/01/2011)

Bibliography

Beard, Steve (2006) Eraserhead (Review).

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=14647 (Accessed on 04/01/2011)

Scheib, Richard (2010) Eraserhead (Review). http://www.moria.co.nz/fantasy/eraserhead.htm (Accessed on 04/01/2011)

Cruz, Jose (2010) Eraserhead1977 (Review). http://classic-horror.com/reviews/eraserhead_1977 (Accessed on 04/01/2011)

Kermode, Jennie (2006) Eraserhead (Review). http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.php?id=7331 (Accessed on 04/01/2011)

Figure 3 - Erasorhead (1977) Erasorhead Film Still.

http://www.blueseek.com/jump2/?affiliate=7926&subid=13777_&terms=mortgage%20refinance(Accessed on 03/01/2011)