David Lynch once described his stunning debut feature simply as “a dream of dark and troubling things,” but the unclassifiable ERASERHEAD is so much more: an expressionistic headtrip, a Grand Guignol nightmare, a pitch-black comedy of manners, and even a deeply personal allegory about the (post-) nuclear family. Amidst a monochromatic wasteland teeming with smoke and shadows, Jack Nance’s wire-haired wage slave Henry struggles to navigate the horrors of mutant offspring, sinister hallucinations and, most terrifying of all, his new in-laws. A midnight movie sensation at IFC Center's precursor, the Waverly Theater, ERASERHEAD returns to 6th Ave in all its strange glory.
Screening as part of Remembering David Lynch
Previously screened as part of our Winter 2022 series, "Waverly Midnights: Late-Night Favorites and Late Night Favorites, Winter 2024-25
"A masterpiece of texture, a feat of artisanal attention, an ingenious assemblage of damp, dust, rock, wood, hair, flesh, metal, ooze." - Nathan Lee, The Village Voice