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31 Days of Horror Movies - Day 30

 

Happy Halloween Eve! I feel like Jack Skellington and the merry creatures of Halloween town making sure that everything goes according to plan before the big day! But here we are, one day before the big night and couldn't be happier with the list we've constructed. Of course, there are some omissions I wish I could have picked, but I only have 31 days. So without any further ado, here's the penultimate pick!

Day 30 - David Lynch's Eraserhead

"A dream of dark and troubling things..."

So says the tagline of David Lynch's Eraserhead - one of the strangest cinematic nightmares ever conceived on the screen that also heralded the arrival of a major auteur. In just 77 minutes, Lynch presents a vision unlike anything seen before OR after it's inception. The plot is very simple, Henry navigates a strange world as he visits his girlfriend while taking care of their baby (who might or not be suffering from some type of mutation). There is a lot to unpack in Eraserhead but Lynch makes everything as abstract as humanly possible. Like Skinamarink after it, Eraserhead actually feels like you're watching a nightmare presented to you by someone who's maybe afraid of parenthood, of intimacy, or of insanely awkward dinner conversations with their in-laws. Eraserhead makes no attempt to even hold your hand, in fact it pretty much throws it away, but it is also one of the most purely cinematic entries on this list (or any list, really). A haunting and truly bizarre artistic expression of a filmmaker that would go on to become of the great American directors of all time. One of the foundational midnight movies from the 1970s (along with Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo and John Waters's Pink Flamingos), Eraserhead is more than a film it is an experience that you need to see to believe - preferably with the lights completely off. Shot in dazzling black and white by legendady cinematographer Frederick Elmes over the course of multiple years (the legend is 7) after Lynch's stay at the American Film Institute making shorts, Eraserhead is the type of cult sensation that your friends dare you to watch in high school and it becomes like an endurance test to see when you stop watching because it is so far removed from anything you've considered a film to be. Lynch's film just defies all type of convention, throws it away, and simply forces the audience to live in the experience and the moment. The less said about Eraserhead, the better. There are moments, sequences, and bits of performance from this that are forever ingrained in your head after seeing it. Whether its something simple like the lonely image of Henry walking across the borderline post-apocalyptic landscape, the sound and reveal of the radiator of Henry's apartment, or even the infamous baby; Eraserhead shatters all pre-conceived notions of what you can expect to see and feel in a film of this kind and just melts your brain away with a masterpiece of terror, disturbing images, and an unforgettable nightmare. 

"In heaven everything is fine..."


*All of the recommendations that we make can be found at the El Paso Public Library Catalog!

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