Eraserhead

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1977
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	David Lynch
Genre:	Surrealist nightmares
Starring:	Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Josep, Jeanne Bates
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074486/
Tagline:	Warning: the nightmare has not gone away
Favourite line:	"Did you and Mary have sexual intercourse?"

Blimey, what do you say about this movie?

The plot:
Henry Spencer is a man so ordinary he is in danger of vanishing in a cloud of blandness. Interested in a woman, he agrees to visit her parents house for dinner and, once there, is confronted in secret by the mother. She demands to know if he has had sexual intercourse with her daughter and,reluctant to admit it, Henry hesitates. The mother lunges in, attempting to get frisky whilst simultaneously repeating the demand. Luckily, the daughter shows up, sparing Henry's blushes but, before she does, the mother announces that Henry now has a child - an impossibility given the timescales.
Now, Henry is a father, but of no ordinary baby. A mutant, with sucking lips and stretched skin, grotesque, the mother soon abandons the pair and Henry is forced to deal with his own sense of disquiet along with the perpetual squeals of his malformed offspring.....

Sweet Jesus, this is tough going.
Filmed in black and white, this has a film noir style, with much use made of shadow and smoke to truly unnerve.
The monstrous baby is genuinely frightening, ET in a pushchair, and Henry's world is painted as one surrounded by nought but bleakness and horror.
Disturbing, mind-melting and utterly one of a kind, this is a movie to test the nerves of even the hardiest horror fan.
Fantastic.