Question

Could you explain the "story" behind Eraserhead...?

Answer 1

Is this for a class?!

I really didn't think that movie had much merit... seemed to just be a really weird series of scenes designed to creep people out.

Some people say that the "true" story behind it is actually a man's fear of pregnancy and fatherhood. (That's why the baby-thing is disfigured and constantly requiring attention) In the end, he is overwhelmed with the need to care for a living creature and destroys it out of disgust.

Another theory is that the whole movie is just the main character's fascination with sex, hence the repeated sexual images and weird semi-sexual encounters. (Like the mother of his girlfriend trying to kiss him, or the girl down the hall.)

Some even hypothesize that the film includes the main character's psyche talking to him. The radiator lady is supposedly some part of his inner mind telling him what to do and such.


Honestly I don't really care for any analysis of the film and I know that we'll never have the real answers. David Lynch was a wacky, wacky man and I never appreciated his work because it just seemed like a bunch of images slapped together.

Answer 2

Thank you so much!
It's for a literary criticism thing where we have to analyze the "story" through a Kafkaesque perspective.

Answer 3

I didn't comprehend the movie whatsoever and I just found it unsettling and disturbingly creepy.

Answer 4

Yeah, it's kind of a win/lose thing. Some people find lots of insight into it and other people (like us) are just confused and weirded out by the end of it, haha! You could even write about that, since you're using that perspective. Lynch put a lot of work into forcing the audience to be unsettled by the sounds. Every silence is either very well placed or actually isn't a full silence. There are lots of times where there are low notes or odd noises playing in the background that don't match the scene for (in my opinion) the single purpose of causing that unsettling feeling.

Answer 5

Yeah, the ambient noise was really weird and it added to the confusion.

Answer 6

Ugh
shivers
baby thing

Answer 7

Hah, yeah... you could probably write a whole essay on why that baby thing shouldn't exist. :p Good luck on your paper!

Answer 8

Thanks!