Pwaters' Month of Terror Day 8: Eraserhead

Hello ladies, gentlemen, and creatures lurking in the shadows!  This month, October, is a favorite among horror fans, such as myself.  My goal for the next 31 days is to share with you the scariest and best of the genre.  The films will range from old school classics to modern day gorefests (they won't be in any particular order).  So scout these movies out, grab a bag of popcorn (or a blood bag) and enjoy!

Eraserhead (1977)
Dir. David Lynch

David Lynch has made some of the weirdest short films and movies of all time.  His debut experimental feature, Eraserhead, is so bizarre and unsettling, it's almost impossible to describe. There's no strict narrative to Eraserhead, but there are similar pieces of imagery throughout that you can try to put together (the consensus is it has something to do with the fear of being a father).  It's a wild experience; it's almost like watching an actual nightmare put to screen. From the minimalistic factory-like soundtrack to the crying of a baby coming from a cow fetus (yup, it's disturbing - they used an actual cow fetus) - if you want a "bad trip" without the LSD, watch Eraserhead.

David Lynch had a hard time getting this film made - the script was only 21 pages long and because no studio wanted to touch it, he shot it intermittently between 1971 and 1977 on a $10,000 grant issued to him by the American Film Institute.  Although it was a rough road to get it made, when it was finished it found a huge underground audience at midnight screenings and big Hollywood names like Mel Brooks and Steven Spielberg caught wind of it (it was Brooks who soon after offered Lynch the job for The Elephant Man, which is a little more "mainstream" than this film).  Now Lynch is heralded as a legendary cult director and is one strange, but artistic dude.