Rating of
4/4
An Impossible Nightmare of a Film
Bob Stone - wrote on 06/10/09
Now,let's get one thing out of the way,David Lynch's 1977 masterpiece, Eraserhead is disturbing, and at first glance, makes no sense whatsoever. But upon repeated veiwing you start to get a feel for what it is: a ninety minute nightmare that shares fears of parenthood and adult responsiblilties.
Henry, a young man, is the films main character, and the 'hero' if you will of the the film. He lives in an anonymous indutstrial waste (probably indicating a post-apocalyptic setting). After returning home from a day at 'work', he is informed by a neighbor that his girlfriend, Mary, has invited him to have dinner at her parents house, while there we are serviced to just how strange this film is going to get(tiny roasted chickens that kick their legs and hemorrage blood?) Mary's mother informs Henry that Mary has had a premature baby that is waiting for them at the hospital, but he cannot see it unless he promises to marry Mary.
The baby, when we see it, is a retilian obomination that refuses to eat and cries day and night. Mary, driven nearly to the point of insanity by the creatures constant howling,storms out of Henry's flat and leaves him to take care of it himself. As thebaby gets more and more sickly we are t presented with several strange images: a lady in Henry's radiator who serenades him telling him that "In heaven everything is fine", and stomps on umbilical-cord looking worm, Henry pulling those very worms from Mary's womb as she sleep, and most unfrogettably, Henry losing his headand having replaced by the wailing head of the baby, and brought to a pencil factory.
Henry then cut the baby's bandages off, killing it, and we see him embracing the lady in the radiator, probably representing the peace of mind he feels no longer having the responsiblity of fatherhood. Do not think I spoiled the movie to you, it is all very simple. The plot is not what matters the most here, its what you take out of the film itself. I, for one, see it as one long metaphor for fear of parenthood, you may see somethign else. And thats the beauty of this film, it is uinterrpratable but though-provoking,nonsensical but unforrgettable.
