The David Lynch movie that left his father traumatised: “Really disturbed him”
The process of creating a film can be deeply personal, leaving the artist exposed and vulnerable. David Lynch’s inner world spilt out into widespread cultural consciousness with movies like Eraserhead and Blue Velvet, revealing himself to be a filmmaker deeply concerned with the darkest corners of humanity. Taking a surreal approach, Lynch cracked open the American psyche, dissecting dreams and nightmares with simultaneous magic and horror.
There’s always a worry that judgment will occur when we fully lay out our creative impulses and innermost desires, which is why so many people are scared of writing a diary (or at least being truly honest in it). For many of us, our deepest obsessions, fantasies, and beliefs remain in a state of repression, never fully explored at the risk of being labelled as strange, pretentious, too ambitious, and so on.
To be an authentic artist is to possess true courage and the abandonment of fear, which Lynch recognised early in his career. The dark beauty of his debut feature, Eraserhead, is magnificent, with grotesque and bizarre imagery interweaving to create an intense portrait of fear and alienation. When it emerged, it polarised many critics, but you can only imagine what those who knew Lynch might’ve thought about his art – they probably wondered if he was OK.
In fact, Lynch wasn’t keen on his parents watching his films, which is something he’s not alone in feeling. Cult indie filmmaker Gregg Araki once told Roger Ebert, “I specifically tell my parents, ‘Do not come see my movies. They’re not made for you, and it makes me uncomfortable, the idea of you watching them.’” Lynch’s movies – with their graphic explorations of sexuality and violence at the heart of American society – aren’t exactly family-friendly, and he didn’t love the idea of his mother and father sitting down to watch them.
Still, that didn’t seem to stop his dad, telling Michael Sragow in 1999, “My mother and father were not allowed to see most of my films—actually, I think my father has seen all of them.” Out of everything Lynch had released until that point, a certain film seemed to have the biggest impact on his father, with the filmmaker adding, “Lost Highway really disturbed him.” Released in 1996, the sexually-charged tale of a couple’s descent into chaos full of doppelgangers, mysterious videotapes, and accusations of murder is a surreal nightmare, and it’s no wonder Lynch’s dad was traumatised by it.
Starring Patricia Arquette, Bill Pullman, Balthazar Getty, and Robert Blake as the terrifying Mystery Man, the film features some of Lynch’s most stunning cinematography, while the soundtrack is heavy with industrial rock that gives the movie a gritty and seductive atmosphere. Blending neo-noir influences with grungy ‘90s nihilism, Lost Highway is not quite the fever dream of Mulholland Drive, but it’s certainly a strong precursor to Lynch’s magnum opus.
Perhaps Lynch’s dad was more fond of his next project, The Straight Story, a Disney-distributed tale of perseverance and family, which was as far removed from the filmmaker’s usual style as he could’ve gotten.
