• Comics
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Contests
  • More
    • New Media
    • Books
    • Fan Culture
    • Collectibles
    • Theatre
    • Community Guidelines
  • About

Hollywood’s Creep Master, David Lynch

October 16, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Maggie Van Ostrand
4

lynch1

Halloween is the time movie fans generally discuss Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful masterpieces. Me? I like to talk about an even better candidate for this creepy holiday: David Lynch. The mind of the writer/director must be a strange place to live, because just visiting it in his films can leave you shaking, shattered, and shape-shifted.

Six Figures Getting Sick (Six Times) (1966) Lynch’s first film (also known as Six Men Getting Sick), only 4 minutes long, shows a bunch of people vomiting with their heads on fire. Not a good date movie.

The Amputee (1974) In only 5 minutes, Lynch tells the story of a legless double amputee (Catherine Coulson) reading a letter. In this early film, Lynch plays a nurse, hair in a long ponytail, hacking away at something in one of Catherine’s stumps, and sucking stuff out of it. Watch it with a popcorn bucket to puke in.

lynch2

Eraserhead (1977), a film about Henry Spencer, who lives in an abandoned building and listens to a singing Lady in the Radiator. His spastic girlfriend, Mary, gives birth to a mutant baby whose constant screaming drives Henry insane.

Blue Velvet (1986) starring Laura Dern and a severed ear, and featuring sinister underworld figures and Dennis Hopper. That should give you a clue, if not a warning, of the freaky-fantasy-sharing mind of David Lynch.

lynch3

Wild at Heart (1990) is about a psychopathic mom freaking out, along with the grotesqueries Lynch is famous for. It again stars Laura Dern, with Nic Cage and Isabella Rosselini.

Mulholland Drive (2001), with Naomi Watts as a Hollywood hopeful who gets sucked into a psychotic illusion with an amnesiac car crash victim.

lynch4

Even when Lynch produces without writing or directing, his movies are weird. Take Crumb, the 1995 documentary about Robert Crumb, underground comic book genius satirist with a fetish for women who have massive thighs and butts, and itty bitty heads with greasy hair and giant lips. Lynch believes fantasy and reality are intermingled, but his subject, Crumb, still lives it.

Lynch also admitted that he wouldn’t want his parents to see any of his movies with the possible exception of The Elephant Man (1980). That may be because the real life of Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man) was even weirder than Lynch’s mental life.

lynch5

David Lynch is definitely Halloween-worthy because, for all we know, those weird things in his head aren’t imaginary.

david lynch, director, movies-

You might also like:

  • 8 Disturbing Directors8 Disturbing Directors
  • 5 Best Picture Winners That Didn’t Deserve The Oscar (And What Did)5 Best Picture Winners That Didn’t Deserve The Oscar (And What Did)
  • Fan Rant: If You Were Kathryn Bigelow, Would You Be Pissed Off?Fan Rant: If You Were Kathryn Bigelow, Would You Be Pissed Off?
  • Hurt Locker Takes Critics’ ChoiceHurt Locker Takes Critics’ Choice
  • Hitchcock Trivia, Part IHitchcock Trivia, Part I
About the Author
Maggie Van Ostrand is ashamed to not be a geek, but she’s proud to have once attended a Star Trek convention where Bill Shatner spoke to her. He said “Hi. Are you anybody?” Maggie graduated from college so long ago, she can’t remember the name of it but thinks it was somewhere in New York. She majored in stuff that has nothing to do with anything she does today, except the classes she audited at the AFI. She knows little or nothing about comic book characters unless they’re drawn by Robert Crumb. She knows nothing of gaming outside of Vegas, and still thinks Moonlight was way better than True Blood. She is here because she reminds the publisher of his grandmother and he felt sorry for her. Her favorites are anything by Billy Wilder, Godfather I and II, Lawrence of Arabia, & Young Frankenstein. She writes political satire for Huffington Post, was head writer for movie trivia TV show; writes a column about Old West characters; was TV comedy ghostwriter; humor columnist for newspapers and online publications, and other boring stuff. Twitter: @magpie99 Website: www.maggievanostrand.com
4 Comments
  1. Kelly Melcher October 16, 2009 at 5:19 pm

    This is awesome. I have seen all of those. Back in college I took a class on the morals in the films of David Lynch. The text books was called Pervert in the Pulpit. I might have to pick up Blue Velvet soon and watch it again now.

  2. Maggie Van Ostrand October 17, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    Very cool to find out there’s a class on Lynch, and a book, too. Didn’t know that. Pervert in the Pulpit … these days, that could mean anybody. :-)

  3. Harley Jones October 18, 2009 at 1:21 pm

    Lost Highway

  4. Maggie Van Ostrand October 18, 2009 at 1:36 pm

    Yesssssss

  • Contest: Win The Alto Knights on Blu-ray and Digital!
  • Contest: Win Mickey 17 on 4K and Digital!
  • Contest: Win Three Clint Eastwood Classics on 4K and Digital!
  • Contest: Win Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League on 4K and Digital!
  • Contest: Win Companion on 4K and Digital!

Follow Us!

© 2008-2022 Fandomania | Privacy Policy