Eraserhead is the Strangest Horror Film I Have Ever Seen in My Life

I think this is the first time I have ever questioned a plot to a horror movie. I did hear that this movie was strange, but wow, I was dumbfounded by literally 80% of this movie. I kept on questioning what was happening throughout the film, and once the film abruptly ended on a strange note, I was left with even more questions.

This is my second David Lynch film.

I had seen Blue Velvet in the past, and I thoroughly enjoyed that film. I'm planning to write a future article on that one, but that film is pretty disturbing, so I think that's why I've been avoiding on writing one for that film.

I have a personal theory as to what Eraserhead is about. This film is one of those horror movies where you need to figure out what the plot is. There are multiple theories to this movie, and I'm going to focus on one theory that I believe makes sense for this strange movie.

I think Eraserhead is about the fears of being a parent.

Henry, our main character, is thrown right into parenthood once he discovers that is girlfriend, Mary, gave birth to his child. After a creepy interaction with her parents, he gives in to marrying his girlfriend. We immediately see that this was a bad idea.

Mary is unhappy raising their child, who turns out to be a mutant baby.

There are several implications during the movie that our characters are living in some kind of dystopian world, so maybe that is why the baby looks so odd.

Mary loses it at some point during the movie, and decides she can't take her new life anymore. She leaves Henry to care for their child. He attempts to leave his baby to go out during the movie, but he realizes that he can't leave, because his baby won't stop crying, and he finds out that his baby is now sick.

This sudden isolation leads to Henry experiencing some sort of downward spiral.

Henry starts to see the weirdest stuff I have ever seen in a horror movie. There are moments of body horror, images of his child taking over his own body, and there is one particular vision that he can't stop seeing.

A woman with huge cheeks, keeps appearing to him in many parts of the film. One part that stood out to me, was when she would start singing to him for a good while. Two sets of lyrics that stood out to me were:

"In heaven, everything is alright."

I thought it was strange that she kept repeating these particular lines, and I have my own theory as to what these lyrics could mean, but I'll share my theory until I reach the ending of the article.

After Henry is done experiencing these strange visions, he runs into a woman that lives across from his apartment. Craving any sort of interaction during his isolation period, they spend a night together. The next day, when he wakes up from having creepy nightmares, he catches the woman with another man.

He goes insane after this, and he does something unforgiveable.

Henry murders his child.

Henry goes crazy, and kills his own kid. After he does this monstrous act, he starts to see visions of the baby's head, appearing to him in his apartment. This part was so scary to see, and I did not think I was going to get that creeped out. I was still trying to process what he did, and that particular vision was the only one that actually got to me.

Henry suddenly finds himself in a white void, and he comes across the lady with the big cheeks. She embraces him with a smile, and Henry shuts his eyes.

And that is where the movie ends.

I think the lady represented death in a way. It does make sense, since she did keep on singing those two particular lines to Henry, and she was the one waiting for him with a smile on her face. I also think this strongly implies that Henry ended his own life too. He couldn't handle what he did to his kid, and he went crazy.

But who knows if this is actually what the film means? My own theory could be wrong.

But I suppose that is the magic of this movie. It makes you wonder what the hell is going on.

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn