Eraserhead: Why David Lynch depicts a nightmare about a fetus

David Lynch's "The Philadelphia Story"

David Lynch first came up with the idea for this film in the early 1970s. He was also a painter, and first drew a picture of a man with plants growing out of his back. He expanded on this inspiration and wrote a script titled "Gardenback." The story is about a man who becomes lustful towards his neighbor, and in response, insects start to grow... Lynch sent this bizarre script to the American Film Institute (AFI), which provides funding to filmmakers, but AFI rejected the grant, saying, "I don't understand this!" (Of course).

Lynch then goes on to create a bizarre script in which ``a little boy takes a man's head to a pencil factory.'' Naturally, the AFI once again said, ``I don't understand!'' However, one of them recognized the immense talent in Lynch's screenplay and insisted that he be given a grant. The people around him reluctantly agreed, and Lynch succeeded in getting the production costs! Thus, the mysterious story titled ``Eraserhead'' began to be made into a movie.

By this time, Lynch already had a wife and children. They married in 1967 after their school sweetheart, Peggy, became pregnant. Although he entered the marriage as a man's mistress, he was trying to spread his wings as an up-and-coming artist, so this marriage was never what he wanted. The following year, their daughter Jennifer was born.

"Eraserhead" (c) Photofest / Getty Images

Lynch was married in an area of ​​Philadelphia called Fairmount. It was a dangerous area where crime and poverty were rampant. David Lynch recalls it this way:

"The city was full of fear. Children were being shot in the street. We were robbed twice, our windows were shot out and our car was stolen."

He also left this comment:

"Philadelphia was a strange city, like a poor New York. The woman next door was always urinating, and she was a total racist. Another woman next door was... , walking around the backyard crouching like a chicken and shouting, ``I'm a chicken!''

If this were true, Twin Peaks would also be in a dark place. Lynch spent five years in a town like this. Eraserhead is set in an industrial area of ​​Philadelphia, but to him it is a place of terror. The depressing nature of this film is a result of David Lynch's own environment.

A personal novel-like private film depicting the madness that dwells within oneself.