Body Horror

When I First Watched David Lynch’s ‘Eraserhead’

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Please don’t ask me what “Eraserhead” is about because I’m still trying to make sense of it after all these years. Even David Lynch, who passed away on January 15, 2025 after battling emphysema, refused to tell anyone what it means as he prefers to let audiences come to their own interpretations. I finally got to see this surrealist body horror cult classic for the very first time at New Beverly Cinema back in 2012, and the theater was packed with fans of Lynch’s films as well as others who were also witnessing his cinematic work for the first time. We all came out of “Eraserhead” baffled as to what it all meant, but we were still endlessly mesmerized by the visuals and sounds Lynch came up with, all of which were done on a very low budget of $100,000.

When the movie’s title appeared on the screen, the audience burst into applause which gave me an idea of just how many at the New Beverly had seen “Eraserhead” before, and I imagine that have sat through it multiple times. We were sucked right in as Henry Spencer’s head floated in front of us while some weird looking guy was pulling at a bunch of levers as if he were pulling strings on a marionette. Then we got a visual of a sperm-like creature floating on the edge of Henry’s mouth which is suddenly shot forward into our world. Whatever this creature is, it was clear it would play a big part as the film unfolded before us.

It was fascinating to take in the audience’s reactions to “Eraserhead” that evening, but the most vocal reaction came when Henry Spencer (plated by Jack Nance) and his girlfriend Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) bring home their hideously deformed newborn baby. No one could tell if it was male or female, and its grotesque appearance both repulsed and enthralled everyone.

This very strange looking baby has a long pencil-thin neck, its head looks more like a giant snout, and it is limbless. To many, this is the kind of baby no parent ever hopes to have, but we feel sympathy towards this child because it breaks our hearts to see any baby suffer the way this one does. That it’s whining seriously got on the nerves of its parents is a testament to the meticulous sound design Lynch put together along with sound editor Alan Splet because it irritated us as well. Then again, we couldn’t help but laugh along with the baby when it let out a cackle as if it were belittling Henry and his feeble attempts at attending to it in a meaningful manner.

With Lynch’s films, there are times where we can’t help but laugh because the dreamlike state he invites and propels us into is at times hard to take seriously. But with every moment we laugh, there is another which has us so deeply enthralled to where we are at a loss for words and you can hear a bag of popcorn or a soda drop from someone’s hands in the theater (if it were a cellphone ringing, they would have been kicked out and banned for life). “Eraserhead” is no exception as it has many moments with a kind of beauty impossible to find in any other motion picture, and this makes Lynch an exceptionally original filmmaker.

This is especially the case with Laurel Near who played the Lady in the Radiator because, even with her horrifically bloated cheeks, she has us at hello with her rendition of the song “In Heaven.” While she may not exactly look pretty by any conventional standards, her singing voice is very sweet and gives us one of the more heart-warming scenes you might not expect this film to have.

While we came out of “Eraserhead” utterly baffled as to how to describe or interpret it, we could not say we weren’t enthralled by what Lynch presented to us. This was his debut as a movie director, and it led him to getting a career in Hollywood as one of its most daring filmmakers. I am eager to revisit this film again in the future because, like “Lost Highway,” I would like to think I can figure out what it all means. Lynch was never quick to give us any easy answers as he felt life was far too complicated and complex to do so, but I appreciate him for always bringing up some very interesting questions. Even as human beings all over the world desperately want everything spelled out to them, Lynch reminded us how we need to think about things for ourselves.

Rest in peace David.

‘The Substance’ – A Gloriously Bold WTF Movie

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

It has been an hour now since I witnessed Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” and I am absolutely convinced I will not see a more bug fuck crazy motion picture in 2024. It combines the extreme body horror of David Cronenberg’s films (“The Fly” in particular), the graphic effects of John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” and the brutal satire of “Network” to create a truly unforgettable motion picture which serves as a middle finger to unrealistic beauty standards, and also a reflection of our own internal biases which we don’t always face up to.

Demi Moore, in what may very well be her finest performance ever, stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, an Oscar winning actress who is currently hosting an aerobics show on television. It is also her birthday, her 50th to be exact, and while everyone is quick to wish her well, her boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) is out to fire her as he sees her as being too old in a business which is constantly looking for young blood on an endless basis. In the process, what should be the happiest day of the year for her is now the worst ever as she is instantly rendered irrelevant in the eyes of many, and she barely survives a truly horrific car crash which would have killed anyone else.

Salvation, however, just might be coming her way when she is encouraged by a doctor to try a black-market serum which is simply called The Substance. It looks a lot like the one Herbert West used to awaken dead corpses in “Re-Animator,” and a sexy male voice, which sounds like it is about to say “I really am as sexy as I sound” tells her this serum will create a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” counterpart of herself. This counterpart ends up emerging from a huge slit in her back in a style reminiscent of “Videodrome,” and while the situation might seem normal, we know this will eventually descend into an inferno no one could ever see coming.

The counterpart is Sue, and she is played ever so unforgettably by Margaret Qualley. Sue ends up auditioning for the job Elisabeth was fired from, gets hired for it, and she becomes a huge sensation in what seems like no time at all. Fargeat really takes the time to show off Sue’s alluring body and curves as she conducts her workout television show as if she is giving pointers on how to have great sex with your lover.

“The Substance” does take its time building up its characters and the serum both become a slave to, but it is all worth it as gives audiences much to enjoy before Fargeat rips the rug out from right underneath us and sends us all in a downward spiral Nine Inch Nails would have loved to make an album out of.

One term which stands out in this film is “respect the balance,” but it eventually becomes clear that Sue cannot as the demands on her become increasingly strenuous to where she uses more of the “stabilizer fluid” from Elisabeth than she has any right to. As a result, Elisabeth starts to see some startling deformations on her body which alarms her to a terrifying extent.

This is where the body horror of “The Substance” comes into full focus as Elisabeth realizes she needs to stop taking the serum, but losing Sue’s infinite success in a business which has pushed her coldly to the side becomes too terrifying to endure. As the story continues, it all becomes incredibly grotesque to where we as an audience become inescapably horrified than she is at the horrors none of us could ever be prepared for. How bad does it get? Well, let me put it this way; there is a track on Raffertie’s wonderfully propulsive soundtrack entitled “Golem.” Need I say more? Well, it’s safe to say this serum will not exactly be “my precious.”

There were a number of other movies I was reminded of while watching “The Substance.” The first was “Requiem for a Dream” in which we watch addicts struggle to obtain the American Dream by any means necessary only to find a pathway to a hell of their own making. Watching Sue continually drain stabilizer fluid out of Elisabeth reminded me of Jared Leto’s abscessed vein in “Requiem for a Dream” in which he injected heroin into. The abscessed veins in both movies are truly horrifying sights to see, and do not promise a better future for either character.

I am also reminded of David Cronenberg’s remake of “The Fly” while watching this film as body parts falling off the human body here have not been as mortifying as watching Jeff Goldblum’s ear fall off in front of Geena Davis. Sitting in a large audience while watching “The Substance,” there was no denying the strong reactions to t characters lose various body parts as it all kept leading to a horrific conclusion much like the one in Brian De Palma’s adaptation of “Carrie.”

Is this really Demi Moore’s finest hour? It may very well be, but this might imply that all her work before this doesn’t measure up, and that’s just insulting. I think she deserved more credit than she got for her work in “A Few Good Men,” and her performance in “G.I. Jane” is one I will never ever forget. In “The Substance,” she is perfectly cast as an actress whom many will be foolishly quick to say is past her prime as it says more about them than it ever will about her. She fully invests herself into the character of Elisabeth Sparkle, and she looks as fabulous as she ever has in the process.

But moreover, Moore has an unforgettable scene in which we see her preparing to go out on a date with an old school friend, only to hate what she sees in the mirror. Watching her violently wipe the makeup off her face reveals a self-hatred we have all experienced at one point in our crazy lives, and the effect this has on her is quite profound thanks to Moore.

Margaret Qualley makes Sue into more than a sex symbol of her time. Instead, she makes her into a person who is instantly gifted a stardom many others spend their lives striving for while the odds remain as astronomical as ever. Seeing her handle this newfound fame is something she makes all the more palpable throughout even as Sue descends into a hell of her own making which results in one of the bloodiest climaxes ever seen in a motion picture.

Just when you think “The Substance” cannot get crazier or bloodier than it already has, you are thrillingly proved wrong in epic fashion. But while I thought this film would descend into the same cinematic chaos which would leave forever psychologically scarred as “Requiem for a Dream” did, Fargeat gives the proceedings a good deal of satirical humor which helps to soften the blow. In fact, it makes everything all the more insidiously fun as we come to see this story will have an inevitably dark ending.

While we are at, I do have to single out Dennis Quaid’s unabashedly shameless performance as Harvey, the producer who heartlessly casts Elisabeth aside and hires Sue because she is ever so young. Quaid is truly sublime and hateful as he takes this heartless character and makes even more heartless than he already is. Seeing him gorge on an endless number of shrimps at the movie’s start is enough to make you see how selfish and thoughtless this guy is, and it is presented us in truly disgusting detail. Basically, he is as slimy as the shrimp he eats, but you all can see this even before he eats the last one on his plate.

“The Substance” is not a cinematic experience I will ever forget, and it is one of the best movies of 2024. In the process of giving us such an insane film, Fargeat gives a huge middle finger to those who continue to hold beauty standards to an obscene and unrealistic standard even this period of the Me Too and Time’s Up movements. It offered up an insanely good time, and watching it with a large audience made it all the more thrilling. If there is any movie out right now which invites you to see and experience it on the big screen, it’s this one.

* * * * out of * * * *