What’s next for Lynchian cinema? The filmmakers continuing David Lynch’s surreal legacy
On January 15th, 2024, it was announced that legendary filmmaker David Lynch had passed away. For decades, Lynch created art that was truly groundbreaking. Beginning with some terrifyingly surreal short films, Lynch went on to make classics like the bizarrely beautiful Eraserhead, the neo-noir erotic thriller Blue Velvet, the ever-confusing Mulholland Drive, and one of television’s most important series, Twin Peaks.
Lynch’s contributions to cinema were revolutionary. He emerged at a time when blockbusters were becoming incredibly popular, with franchises clouding up mainstream Hollywood. Yet, there he stood, defiant and uncompromising, as he wielded his ideas towards a brighter future for cinema – even if his ideas were often dark. With a penchant for dreams and dissecting the often grim realities that could be found beneath images of perfection and beauty, Lynch’s work quickly became easily identifiable.
Even though Lynch often explored similar themes throughout his work, his films all take on worlds of their own. For example, the erotic Lost Highway feels like a natural prequel to the darkly glamorous Mulholland Drive, a film that features ideas that Lynch brought to the boil in the much more nightmarish Inland Empire. You can easily tell Lynch’s films apart, but they’re all linked by a preoccupation with the human psyche’s propensity for jealousy, guilt, alienation, dreaming, and desire.
Lynch’s love of the surreal manifested through unconventional formal techniques, like non-linear narratives and scenes that, on the surface, appear to make no sense. He often imbued his narratives with strikingly gorgeous imagery that was swiftly undercut with nightmare-inducing material – the audience was truly at the mercy of Lynch and his multitudinous mind.
Yet, with Lynch’s recent passing, we must question what will happen to the state of weird, Lynchian cinema. The brilliance of Lynch’s work could be found in its blend of experimental and avant-garde ideas and techniques that sat alongside familiar frameworks as genres such as neo-noir, soap opera-esque television, and well-known ensemble cast. Lynch’s movies aren’t hard-to-find gems – they’re easily streamable and well-loved pieces of media that bridged a gap between the mainstream and the underground.
So, who can we entrust in keeping this spirit alive? The truth is, there is no other Lynch, no other filmmaker who we can compare stylistically. Lynch’s work was so unique and unmistakably him; he tapped into a world that few could access, yet he was able to deliver these ideas to millions of people who understood. While few have the ability to access the kinds of simultaneously beautiful and horrifying ideas that Lynch did, there are certainly filmmakers out there making movies that maintain a love for the surreal and gorgeously twisted.
Take Jane Schoenbrun, for example, whose recent film I Saw the TV Glow was hailed by many critics as Lynchian, with the movie taking an unusual look at suburbia as the protagonist begins to question his identity after becoming engrossed with a television show they once loved. Like Lynch’s work, there is a definitive surrealism that puts the viewer on edge, with dreamworlds and themes of escape and confusion coming together to make a movie that feels perfectly indebted to the Mulholland Drive director.
Then we have Coralie Fargeat, director of The Substance, who managed to make a truly bizarre and uncomfortable piece of cinema that attracted a wide audience. Bridging the gap between niche horror and the mainstream like Lynch, The Substance isn’t something you can imagine him directing per se, but you can certainly draw parallels between the way both Lynch and Fargeat forgo convention to explore universal ideas. There are even various references to Lynch’s work in the movie, like The Elephant Man, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive.
French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, director of Raw and Titane, also feels like a suitable figure to carry Lynch’s torch forward, with her surreal and grotesque take on femininity and humanity certainly bearing his influence. Her films are totally idiosyncratic, like Lynch, using provocative images that never feel forced and even the right amount of humour to balance out the horror. “David Lynch. Obviously, he’s an amazing director, and his shots are beautiful, but what I like the most about him is his sense of humour. He cracks me up,” Ducournau once told Focus Features.
There are various other figures that seem as though they are going to keep Lynch’s genius alive in their own ways, like newcomer Luna Carmoon (Hoard) or more established lovers of the surreal, such as Yorgos Lanthimos. These names are maintaining the spirit of Lynch’s twisted fantasy worlds while creating movies that are totally original and not simply derivative of what Lynch established before them.
That’s why they feel like the correct candidates—from Schoenbrun to Ducournau, these filmmakers have mastered what it means to depict the human experience in an unsettling yet beautiful way, crafting worlds that engulf and trap us, leaving us simultaneously horrified and enraptured.
