Eraserhead

"In heaven, everything is fine..."

It’s about time to add to my list of “what did I just see?” Okay, let’s take a look: “House?” Check. “Panty and Stocking?” Check! Oh, and it seems like there’s a new item: “Eraserhead.”

“Eraserhead” is the 1977 brain child (and first full-length film) of the intense filmmaker David Lynch; though, that is all I can say about it, for you must experience it for yourself (also, because this will feature some heavy spoilers).

Where to start?

Well, for one, you have to realize that David Lynch does not discuss the meaning of “Eraserhead,” and for adequate reason: he wants everybody to have their own interpretation of it. So, no explanation can truly be right; you’ll just have to form an opinion yourself.

With that in mind, I’ll try to be very straightforward with what I think it means: “Eraserhead” is about fatherhood. And not just any old anticipating-son fatherhood, no, but the fears that come along with it. The very first scene of the film starts with somebody named ‘The Man in the Planet’ controlling a giant spermatozoon-like figure into a void, right up until it falls limp into a puddle of water; the perfect start for what the audience is getting into.

Following suit, we then see what type of world our main character (Henry) is living in: a bleak, sleazy, and depressing industrial dumping ground. The film further articulates its unearthly presence by featuring a squirm-in-your-seat uncomfortable encounter with the parents of Henry’s girlfriend, who inform him that she just bore a hopelessly mutated child.

Here’s where the film begins to fully present itself: the scenes following the bringing home of the baby show that Henry is completely helpless when it comes to helping the thing; all he can do is haphazardly try to ease its unbearable pain, but, alas, it’s to no avail.

After lying down on his bed (which is seated right next to the wailing child), he starts to look into his apartment’s radiator, in which the camera pans around to reveal a stage. Here enters ‘The Lady in the Radiator,’ one of the film’s most talked-about aspects. At first, she steps side to side (accompanied by some unsettling music) on the stage, gleefully smiling with her bloated cheeks, up until she is interrupted repeatedly by falling sperm-like figures from above, all of which she promptly stomps on, leaking a disgusting liquid out onto the stage.

This could mean one of two things: one, this is yet another sign of father-consequential fearfulness, specifically in the sign to sexual repression when one does have a child, or, two, what Henry would have wanted, which was no children (alternatively, sperm) at all. For continuity’s sake, I’ll choose the latter, which seems to make more sense in Henry’s nightmarish realm.

Soon after, he experiences a sexual encounter with his neighbor across the way (similarly titled ‘The Beautiful Lady Across the Hall’), which leads to yet another nightmare where is seen being decapitated, with his baby’s mutated head growing in its place, which is yet another sign that this child is invasive, unwanted, and problematic.

After this, the film goes into near shutdown mode (if it wasn’t in it enough already), choosing to have little to no dialogue.

Here’s the rundown, ‘The Beautiful Lady Across the Hall’ finds another man, Henry becomes emotionally devastated after his encounter shortly ago, and returns to find his child wailing. For the first time, he finally cuts the child’s bandages off, revealing that the baby was strung together by the hospital-issued strips, of which expose his internal organs. Henry shakily cuts them, killing the child, and, almost instantly, the apartment’s power overloads.

Somewhere in a vast, white landscape, enters in Henry and ‘The Lady in the Radiator,’ who embrace as static and white noise overflow the senses.

Cut to black.

Wrapping up, what does it all mean? We may never know for sure (and we most likely won’t), but, I stand by my interpretation: “Eraserhead” is about the fear, sexual repression, and anxiety of raising a child. Interestingly enough, though, the director, David Lynch, had his newly-born daughter going through many surgeries during the time of filming. Furthermore, David Lynch has also been cited has having parental fear as well.

Even if you don’t resonate with the film’s messages, it is still an important landmark in the history of cinema everywhere. “Eraserhead” is, most definitely, a masterpiece.