Eraserhead

David Lynch's 1977 feature debut is an utterly unconventional and haunting tale about a dim, doughy factory worker named Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), who is suddenly thrust into marriage and parenthood when his girlfriend, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart), becomes pregnant. After Mary gives birth to a mutated baby that mewls and cries without stop, her maternal impulses evaporate and she abandons both husband and child. Meanwhile, the dazed Henry escapes from his bleak and grimy life via dreams and possible hallucinations involving the infant and a woman called the Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near). One shouldn't expect explanations from Lynch—whose films are more of an experience than a story. There was nothing like Eraserhead when it debuted, and it quickly became the quintessential midnight movie. Seen today, it plays like pure, primordial Lynch, with alienated characters stuck in a nightmarish world of industrial slums, all set to a soundtrack of grinding noise. But strange as it seems, Lynch still manages to create a bizarre kind of beauty out of the ugliness, and it was on the strength of his vision here that he was hired to direct The Elephant Man. While obviously not for everyone, this provocative black-and-white film remains a cult classic. Lynch personally supervised the remastering for Criterion's DVD and Blu-ray editions, which also feature restorations of six short works by Lynch, the 2001 “making-of” documentary “Eraserhead Stories,” new and archival interviews with Lynch and his collaborators, and a booklet. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)