EraserHead

Eraserhead was directed by the great David Lynch, and was released in 1977. He started filming eraserhead in 1971 after he received a grant for $10,000 from AFI Conservatory, the place where he was studying MFA (Masters of Fine Arts). However, the grant he received form AFI was not enough to complete the film, so he worked on the film until it's release in 1977. To finish the film, David lynch had to borrow the money from friends and family.

THE PLOT

The film begins with a mysterious, disfigured man in a small dark room. While looking out of a small window, he starts pulling these large levers. While doing this,

a worm like creature is seen floating in the dark. Then we see Henry floating in the darkness with this worm floating around him. The worm flies away and disappears into some rock formations with a circular opening and strange fluid coming out of it.

The intro to this film, like the rest of the film, can be very hard to watch for most people, but I think everyone should watch this film at least once. Anyway, lets carry with the film plot.

Mary X, is henry's very strange girlfriend. She rings henry and invites him round to her parents house for dinner. As soon as henry gets there, he starts to feel very uneasy. Mary's mum is acting strange, and Mary's dad is a complete odd ball with his random

and disconnected outbursts. They all sit round for dinner, which happens to be baby chickens. Henry is asked to carve the small chickens, but when he tries, the chickens start to ooze slime while moving their legs up and down. After a few more odd moments Henry is confronted by Mary's mother who tells Henry that Mary has just had a baby and that he should marry her.

Mary and the baby move into Henry's small small apartment. The baby is very disfigured and maybe not even human at all. The baby is covered in bandages and the only visible part is the face. It looks more like an alien than a human baby. The baby keeps them awake at night with it's crying and screaming. She decides to abandon Henry and her baby and move out of the flat. Henry is left with the baby which by now, is showing signs of being very sick. Henry starts to have strange encounters with a lady in the radiator. A strange looking woman with puffy cheeks and blonde hair. When he first encounters her, she is doing a dance routine while these small worm like creatures are falling from above her. She smiles at henry, crushing these worms as she is dancing. His next encounter with the radiator woman, she starts to sing ”In heaven everything is fine/you've got your good things, and I've got mine”. You get the feeling that she is trying to reach out to Henry, to help him. I got the feeling that they were soul mates.

Henry starts to fall into his own dark nightmare.

This film is truly stunning, and the only one of its kind, and I think that's why I have a love/hate relationship with eraserhead. The cinematography is amazing with it's

industrial setting and industrial noises. Some of the imagery is horrific, some of it beautiful. The acting is very good too, and all the characters are very believable in their odd little ways.

I don't class this film as a horror film. Sure, it has it's moments of shock, but it's far from horror. I think the film is about a man dealing with his insecurities. Coming to terms with being a father, and being alone and feeling suicidal. He is living the nightmare. His nightmare is what we see around him, the small dark apartment, the window with no view, the sick disfigured baby. It just has a depressing feel about it. If I had insecurities, or felt suicidal, in my mind, my world would reflect eraserhead's world.

Of course, this is the way I see the film. You might watch it and see it in a completely different way, that's why the film is so effective. Every time I watch this film, I see something new. I learn a little bit more about Henry, and the world around him. I feel his pain and suffering, his desperation as he tries to live in a world that is

filled with our own personal nightmares.

I think there is is a little bit of Henry in all of us. We all have our own nightmares. Some we tell others, and some we keep locked up in our own dark, small apartment.

If you decide to watch this film, come back here and tell me what you thought. .

All views are welcome