Eraserhead (DVD)

‘Eraserhead’ is director/writer David Lynch’s first film, and represents a height of strangeness that he has never again reproduced. A cult classic and labour of love, the film invites criticism as much as it does acclaim, the obsessive pet project of a film art student in pursuit of being abnormal. Although some sections rely almost entirely on the WFTSOW factor (weird for the sake of weird), there’s enough interesting and insightful material to keep dedicated viewers hooked past the end credits, and Lynch succeeds perfectly in capturing an original and specific horrific atmosphere in crisp black-and-white. Like Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ a ...  Read the complete review

Eraserhead represents one of the most confusing and unpalatable pieces of cinematic art. But yet in it’s confusion springs great ideas and a surprising anti-entertainment. Without seeing the film it is hard to understand just how confusing and alienating the image is. I first saw it as a young media student and I hated it, I couldn’t stand it, but then inexplicably I brought the DVD, and forcibly watched it, and herein I found a kindling love for it. The film is designed to alienate and confuse an audience, overloading their senses with confusing imagery and a bombardment of background sounds. The story is a typically Lynchian confusing muddle, with undertones, ...  Read the complete review

Ninety percent of films are a mixture of story, character-development and of course, the imagery. Few directors are audacious enough to actually build a film that is completely perceptually dominated. Indeed, such films are pieces of art over anything else, which limits their appeal to a wide audience. This, however, was never any concern for David Lynch, who with Eraserhead has created a film that is as beautiful as it is strange, a film that speaks through warped imagery rather than dialogue and really excels in this more than any other film. Henry (Jack Nance) lives in a derelict neighbourhood of decrepit buildings, its streets strewn with mounds of ash ...  Read the complete review

Henry's life is a little odd. He lives in an industrial nightmare of a landscape, has a girlfriend whose family are from the planet GaGa, and has apparently fathered a baby that looks like it was recovered from the basement section of the hospital reserved for the disposal of aborted pregnancies. Eraserhead is a David Lynch film. I was never a big fan of Lynch: I hated Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart bored me to tears and I blinked whilst watching Blue Velvet thereby losing track of the plot. Eraserhead, however, had me riveted to the living room carpet, inches away from the tv with the lights off and the sound up full. This film is stunning. ...  Read the complete review

ERASERHEAD was the feature-length directorial debut of David Lynch, although he had previously made experimental shorts including THE ALPHABET and THE GRANDMOTHER. This is a decidedly odd film and I don’t advise you to see it if you’ve never seen any of Lynch’s work before. It is not a particularly accessibly introduction to his work and for that I would recommend that you should go to the TV series TWIN PEAKS, then the movie BLUE VELVET, and perhaps only then come to this film. ERASERHEAD took approximately five years to make, beginning in 1972. Jack Nance starts as Henry Spencer, the ‘hero’ of the piece. Nance would go on ...  Read the complete review