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The late David Lynch was a masterful storyteller, and his works will likely remain cinematic staples for generations to come. His unique sensibilities and love for creative freedom are central pillars of his many works. Like many filmmaking legends, Lynch was a stickler for detail and an adept visual illusionist capable of turning ordinary scenery into eye-popping art.

Of course, a magician never reveals his secrets. Lynch’s work yielded countless innovations, but he still held some secrets. As a lover of deep thought, he rarely offered concreted explanations for his surrealist masterpieces. And one of the greatest Lynchian conundrums is buried in his first film, Eraserhead.

David Lynch Burst Onto the Scene With Eraserhead in 1978 Continuous production problems and budgetary issues caused Eraserhead’s filming to span five years. Eraserhead was added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry in 2004. Jack Nance maintained his character’s wild...

Quick Links 'Eraserhead' (1977) and 'The Elephant Man' (1980) 'Dune' (1984) and 'Blue Velvet' (1986) 'Wild at Heart' (1990) and 'Lost Highway' (1997) 'The Straight Story' (1999), 'Mulholland Drive' (2001), and 'Inland Empire' (2006) 'Twin Peaks' (1990-1991), 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me' (1992), and 'Twin Peaks: The Return' (2017)

The distinguished American director David Lynch died yesterday after battling emphysema, a lung disease caused by smoking. Hollywood is mourning the passing of the visionary and iconic director and remembering his legacy in the film industry. His films received critical acclaim for their dark, surrealistic vision, revolutionizing American films and how future directors approach filmmaking. As one of the greatest directors in the American film industry, Lynch left behind an astonishing filmography that includes 10 feature films along with his iconic Twin Peaks television series. He ventured from big-scale cinema...

Acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg opens up about the loss of David Lynch.

Per Variety, Spielberg joined the numerous Hollywood icons who have publicly mourned the tragic death of David Lynch. "I loved David’s films," Spielberg stated. "Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Elephant Man defined him as a singular, visionary dreamer who directed films that felt handmade,” Spielberg said in a statement. “I got to know David when he played John Ford in The Fabelmans. Here was one of my heroes—David Lynch playing one of my heroes. It was surreal and seemed like a scene out of one of David’s own movies. The world is going to miss such an original and unique voice. His films have already stood the test of time and they always will."

Related David Lynch's 38-Year-Old Oscar-Nominated Thriller Gets New Streaming Home

One of David Lynch's most polarizing motion pictures is headed to...

In 1967, when he was only 21, the late David Lynch moved to Philadelphia with his pregnant wife, Peggy. The city would change him forever. He moved into a cheap home in an impoverished neighborhood that was lousy with crime. He also felt he wasn't prepared to be a father, although he did very much love his daughter, Jennifer. In the interview book "Lynch on Lynch," the filmmaker said that Philadelphia was a city of fear. People regularly broke into his house, and his car was stolen. "There was violence and hate and filth," he said. He took a job as an engraver, and his thoughts turned dark.

From 1967 to 1970, Lynch began making his first short films, including "Six Men Getting Sick," and "The Alphabet." The former was to be projected on a specially sculpted screen that Lynch made himself, with six human figures emerging from the wall. At about the same time,...

As the nights grow longer and the air turns crisp, it’s the perfect time to settle in with some of the best spooky films ever made. From eerie silent classics to modern horror hits, spooky cinema has evolved across decades, yet each era has its own spine-tingling gems. Whether you love atmospheric terror or heart-pounding scares, here’s a journey through the best films from the 1920s to today that will give you chills. Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media has the responsibility to better our world – The Hollywood Insider fully focuses on substance and meaningful entertainment, against gossip and scandal, by combining entertainment, education, and philanthropy. 1920s - 1980s ‘The Haunting’ (1963) Cast: Julie Harris,...

The classic historical drama Little House on the Prairie has many fans, complete with fan-events and gatherings. However, many of the stars of the series have taken issue with a former event promoter for the show. The cast-members have even taken to social media to reassure and explain the issue to fans.

The Series Had Many Events Planned Around The Country

Little House on the Prairie is an American Western historical drama, loosely based on the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Michael Landon famously played the Ingalls patriarch, Charles Ingalls, with Laura herself played by actress Melissa Gilbert.

Originally running from 1974 to 1983, the series continues to have its fans, complete with events. However, such fan gatherings recently sparked controversy involving an event planner.

Little House on the Prairie – YouTube

Fan promoter Jack Bishop and his company Gravel Road Markets came under fire after fans weren...

Long before Kevin Bacon played himself in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, but still several years after starring in his most famous movie, Footloose, he appeared in a horror classic that's dominating the streaming charts nearly 25 years after release. Tremors, the 1990 monster horror film in which Bacon stars alongside Fred Ward, Finn Carter, and Michael Gross, has claimed the #6 spot on Peacock, falling just short of the Tom Hardy and Austin Butler-led motorcycle drama, The Bikeriders. Tremors follows natives of a small, isolated town who struggle to defend themselves against strange underground creatures who are picking them off one by one. In addition to Bacon, Ward, Carter, and Gross, Tremors also stars Reba McEntire and Charlotte Stewart, and the film currently sits at an 88% score from critics and a 75% rating from general audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

Some movies are made for an easy viewing experience. Fast and Furious rarely asks much of its viewers, who can easily comprehend the overall narrative and characters without paying close attention to every scene. There never necessarily needs to be an extensive focus on anyone's part.

Some, however, demand constant focus from their audience. There can be lighthearted sections, but viewers can never take so much as a bathroom break without losing track of the plot. Character motivations change often and fights drastically influence the narrative. Without paying close attention, some movies go completely off the rails.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 Introduces Random Characters

Release Year

2014

Genres

Action, Comedy, Superhero

Many Marvel Cinematic Universe characters are fairly comprehensible. The Guardians of the Galaxy movie, however, introduced some of the most bizarre MCU characters. A talking raccoon, a tree who can only utter a single word, an alien incapable of understanding sarcasm,...

Little House on the Prairie star Charlotte Stewart has been reflecting on her life and career as the hit show celebrates its 50th anniversary this coming September. Stewart, who played beloved teacher Miss Beadle in the iconic western-historical drama, joined her former cast and crew members at Simi Valley, California, this past weekend for a special three-day festival honoring the milestone event. Speaking to The Sun, the veteran actress recalled her audition for Little House, where she showed up in a tie-dye T-shirt and jeans. “I walked in, and there was Michael Landon [the producer], and I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is really big,'” she shared, “So they said, ‘Are you ready to read?’ And I looked at the producer who was sitting behind this big desk with all these executives around him, and I said, ‘May I sit behind your desk?'” “So he got up and moved,...

The Tremors 3: Back to Perfection episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? was Written by Cody Hamman, Narrated by Adam Walton, Edited by Jaime Vasquez, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Subterranean creatures become two-legged, gliding Ass Blasters in the second sequel to Tremors. Kevin Bacon isn’t there to fight them. Neither is Fred Ward. But Michael Gross is still around and ready to save the day… in a movie that didn’t have quite enough money or time to bring its monster action to the screen. Today we’re talking about Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (watch it Here). And we’re going to find out What the F*ck Happened to This Horror Movie!

Directed by Ron Underwood from a script he crafted with Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson, the 1990 film Tremors is one of the greatest creature features ever made.

When Universal Pictures released the classic creature feature Tremors (watch it Here) back in 1990, they decided to market it with poster art that brings to mind the iconic poster for Universal’s 1975 release Jaws. But before they made that choice, they had hired famed artist Drew Struzan – whose work includes the posters for Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and Star Wars films, among many others – come up with a couple poster ideas. Yesterday, Struzan took to social media to share a look at a couple of his unused Tremors poster concepts… and you can check them out in this embed:

“Tremors” Unpublished Original #MoviePoster Concept Art…

This 1990 film stars Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Reba McEntire and Finn Carter. pic.twitter.com/HSAt4UXw3k

— Drew Struzan (@DrewStruzan) April 11, 2023

Tremors fans may have seen this artwork before, as Struzan has already posted both poster concepts online in recent years, but...

"Believe it or not, 'Eraserhead' is my most spiritual film," said surrealist auteur David Lynch in an interview, and this moment has become a meme template over the years. When asked to elaborate, the director smiled and simply said no in the most David Lynch way, emphasizing his philosophy of subjective interpretation and a refusal to "explain" his art. This outlook remains true to the essence of Lynch's oeuvre — most of his work is rooted in dream or nightmare logic, meant to be experienced instead of dissected or understood. Abstract ideas form chilling vignettes of what can only be described as grotesque or deeply surreal, such as his intensely hallucinatory "Inland Empire," which still defies explanation beyond the core themes that drive the film. Perhaps, that is the point of it all: Dreams often do not make sense, even to the dreamer, but act as portals to...

A new episode of the Revisited video series has just arrived online, and in this one we’re looking back at one of my personal all-time favorite movies, the 1990 creature feature Tremors (watch it Here)! To find out what we had to say about Tremors, check out the video embedded above.

Directed by Ron Underwood from a screenplay by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson (who also share story credit with Underwood), Tremors has the following synopsis: Handymen Val McKee and Earl Bassett are tired of their dull lives in the small desert town of Perfection, Nevada. But just as the two try to skip town, they happen upon a series of mysterious deaths and a concerned seismologist studying unnatural readings below the ground. With the help of an eccentric couple, the group fights for survival against giant, worm-like monsters hungry for human flesh.

The film stars Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward,...

This 1990 monster romp still feels bright, smart & fresh, a mix of light comedy and old-fashioned scares. The entire show is one long battle against smelly burrowing beasts called ‘Graboids.’ Desert handymen Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward must work hard to avoid taking their place in the Graboid Food Chain. Ambitious it ain’t, but it delivers what monster fans want — gross-out thrills, excellent effects and solid laughs. Arrow’s 4K Ultra HD disc is as sharp as a tack, and a second Blu-ray disc contains an unprecedented volume of featurettes, interviews and production documentation.

Tremors 4K

4K Ultra HD

Arrow Academy

1990 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date December 15, 2021 / 59.95

Starring: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Robert Jayne, Bobby Jacoby, Charlotte Stewart, Tony Genaro, Ariana Richards, Richard Marcus, Victor Wong, Bibi Besch

Sunshine Parker Sunshine Parke.

Cinematography: Alexander Gruszynski

Production Designer: Ivo Cristante

Special Effects: Robert Skotak,...

Stars: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates | Written and Directed by David Lynch

David Lynch is well known for being a director who is not ashamed to go to some bizarre places, a man known for his surrealism, his specific and individualistic tone in works like Twin Peaks, Lost Highway and this, the feature debut of the legendary writer/director. It is a weird film, that’s for damn sure, but there’s something truly haunting about it too. Amongst the peculiar imagery lives an eerie undertone that became something of a staple, a trademark, for Lynch.

With Eraserhead, the film that preceded The Elephant Man, which arrived some three years later, Lynch delivered to the world a nightmare of visual terror, a tale of a factory worker named Henry Spencer who is driven slowly mad by the cries of his newborn mutant baby. This isn’t, even 43 years later,...

David Lynch's feature film debut Eraserhead is largely hailed as one of the most original and disturbing movies ever assembled. The nightmarishly surreal experimental horror film follows Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), a bizarre factory worker who is beset with severe anxiety over the birth of his revoltingly deformed son. As Henry tries to keep his son alive, he must contend with a bleak industrial atmosphere, deranged potential in-laws, and his deeply unhappy girlfriend, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart).

Related: 10 Best Performances In David Lynch Films

Eraserhead cost a scant $10,000 and grossed just $22,000 at the box-office before becoming a bona fide cult classic among midnight movie crowds and home-video viewers. Here is a detailed look back at the film's production history.

For anyone who has been having troubling processing the fact that “Twin Peaks: The Return” is over, which could very well mean the end of the franchise as we know it, let the cast’s wonderful behind-the-scenes photos shine a light upon you. Kyle McLachlan, Sabrina Sutherland, and more have taken to social media in the weeks after that mind-blowing finale to share never-before-seen looks at “The Return” set, and man does David Lynch seem to be having the time of his life.

Read More:David Lynch Finally Shares His Thoughts on the ‘Twin Peaks’ Finale, Confirms Season 4 is Possible

Lynch has teased the possibility of continuing the series with Season 4, though nothing is confirmed. He joked that time is the biggest factor standing in his way, given it took over four years to write, direct, and edit “The Return.” The filmmaker is remaining ambiguous about the finale, telling...

Networks: ABC; Showtime. Episodes: 48 (hour) + 1 movie. Seasons: Three. TV show dates: April 8, 1990 - June 10, 1991. May 21, 2017 — September 3, 2017. Series status: Has not been cancelled. Performers include: Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Sheryl Lee, Kyle MacLachlan, Everett McGill, Kimmy Robertson, Russ Tamblyn, Ray Wise, Grace Zabriskie, Amy Shiels, Robert Forster, Phoebe Augustine, Chrysta Bell, Richard Beymer, Catherine E. Coulson, Jan D'Arcy, Laura Dern, David Duchovny, Sherilyn Fenn, Miguel Ferrer, Warren Frost, Ashley Judd, David Patrick Kelly, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Peggy Lipton, James Marshall, Owain Rhys Davies, Wendy Robie, Charlotte Stewart, Harry Dean Stanton, Al Strobel, Carel Struycken, Eddie Vedder, Naomi Watts, and Alicia Witt. TV show description:A surrealist murder mystery...

Networks: ABC; Showtime. Episodes: Ongoing (hour). Seasons: Ongoing. TV show dates: April 8, 1990 - June 10, 1991. May 21, 2017 — September 3, 2017. Series status: Has not been cancelled. Performers include: Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Sheryl Lee, Kyle MacLachlan, Everett McGill, Kimmy Robertson, Russ Tamblyn, Ray Wise, Grace Zabriskie, Amy Shiels, Robert Forster, Phoebe Augustine, Chrysta Bell, Richard Beymer, Catherine E. Coulson, Jan D'Arcy, Laura Dern, David Duchovny, Sherilyn Fenn, Miguel Ferrer, Warren Frost, Ashley Judd, David Patrick Kelly, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Peggy Lipton, James Marshall, Owain Rhys Davies, Wendy Robie, Charlotte Stewart, Harry Dean Stanton, Al Strobel, Carel Struycken, Eddie Vedder, Naomi Watts, and Alicia Witt. TV show description:A surrealist murder mystery series with horror...

Twin Peaks Recap is a weekly column by Keith Uhlich covering David Lynch and Mark Frost's limited, 18-episode continuation of the Twin Peaks television series.There's a brief, very beautiful moment in Part 7 of the new Twin Peaks, during the scene in which hotelier Benjamin Horne (Richard Beymer) and his secretary Beverly Paige (Ashley Judd) are investigating a strange sound emanating from the walls of the Great Northern. Ben points in the direction that he thinks the soft, soothing tone is coming from, and for a second he seems to be pointing right at the camera—past it, really…toward our world, at those of us on the other side of the fiction/fact divide. A blink-and-you'll-miss-it breach, but it lays some subtle groundwork for what follows: The aesthetically and thematically provocative Part 8 fitted the Twin Peaks mythos into our very real history of atomic destruction. And this week's...

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from “Twin Peaks” Episode 9, “Part 9.”]

As “Twin Peaks” reached its halfway mark, David Lynch dumped a lot of information in Sunday’s episode that connected the dots but didn’t give everything away. But it does look like everyone is going to journey to the Black Lodge, which means another batshit crazy episode could be in the offing.

Read More‘Twin Peaks’ Review: Part 9 Takes Us on a Dark Highway to the Danger Zone

Without further ado, let’s dive into the episode:

The Time 2:53

We first heard about “253” when Special Agent Cooper met the Evolution of the Arm, who told him, “253. Time and time again.” Later, that number comes up as a time, when Cooper gets sucked from the Purple Room to the electrical socket and into Dougie’s life. Simultaneously, Dougie gets whisked to the Black Lodge, and Evil Cooper wrecks his car and starts puking bloody garmonbozia.

In Part 9, Sheriff Truman,...

Has Diane gone over to the dark side? Is Cooper’s trusty Gal Friday no longer trustworthy? Why is she getting mysterious texts from Evil Cooper? Are they in cahoots? Wasn’t she just yelling at him in the prison and hinting at some horrible misdeeds on his part? Or does she maybe think the texts are coming from somebody else? Why doesn’t she mention all this to her old smoke-buddy Gordon Cole? Ok, enough Diane questions, on with the recap of Twin Peaks Episode 9:

On ‘The Farm’ In South Dakota l Evil Coop is just fine, despite...

Showtime announced today that filming has finished on David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks revival series. Ahead of its 2017 premiere, the series’ complete cast—including returning actors as well as those who are new to the series—has been revealed.

Newcomers to the series include Monica Bellucci, Jim Belushi, Michael Cera, Jeremy Davies, Laura Dern, Sky Ferreira, Robert Forster, Meg Foster, Ashley Judd, David Koechner, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Matthew Lillard, Derek Mears, Sara Paxton, Ernie Hudson, Naomi Watts, Trent Reznor, The Walking Dead‘s Josh McDermitt, and many more.

Returning actors include Kyle MacLachlan, Ray Wise, Harry Dean Stanton, Alicia Witt, and more. Below, we have the official press release and full cast list:

Press Release: Los Angeles, CA – April 25, 2016 – Principal photography has concluded on the highly-anticipated new Twin Peaks for Showtime. And today, Showtime, David Lynch and Mark Frost are revealing a key piece of the mystery:...

Showtime revealed the full cast list for its upcoming "Twin Peaks" revival, and it's nothing short of insane -- and insanely long.

The ensemble includes a whopping 217 actors -- yes, you read that right -- and amid all the returning faces, there are also a bunch of surprising, big-name newbies along for the ride this time around. (We've embedded the entire list at the end of this post.)

Original cast members that will be back include many previously-announced people, and the ensemble will feature the likes of Kyle MacLachlan, Sherilyn Fenn, Madchen Amick, Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook, David Duchovny, Miguel Ferrer, Grace Zabriskie, Peggy Lipton, Ray Wise, Wendy Robie, Russ Tamblyn, and Catherine E. Coulson, among many others.

As for the newcomers, some of the bold names that stand out include Monica Bellucci, Jim Belushi, Michael Cera, Laura Dern, Jay R. Ferguson (a.k.a. Stan from "Mad Men"), Ernie Hudson ("Ghostbusters"), Ashley Judd,...

The new "Twin Peaks" isn't slated to debut on Showtime until 2017, but a flurry of speculation about it happened last week with a tweet from Go For Locations indicating that filming had wrapped on the "first two seasons" of the series.

The episode count for the David Lynch-directed series was always in question, but that tweet suggested we'd be getting even more episodes than originally planned. Said tweet has since been deleted, so we'll have to wait to see how that pans out.

in the meantime in more official news, Showtime, Lynch and Mark Frost has released the official cast list for the new series with a whopping 217 names across the various episodes - a list that includes some real surprise big name inclusions such as Monica Bellucci, Michael Cera, Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Eddie Vedder, Ashley Judd, Ernie Hudson, Jim Belushi, Richard Chamberlain, Laura Dern,...

Neil Young is an artist forever looking in two directions. He's currently focused on the future with his new band Promise of the Real, and also surveying his legacy as musician and filmmaker. It was the latter that brought Young to the Regal Theater in downtown Los Angeles for Monday's screening of Human Highway and Rust Never Sleeps, digitally restored and set for first-time DVD release.

Between the two films, Young appeared at a Q&A moderated by acclaimed filmmaker (and sometime Rolling Stone writer) Cameron Crowe that was also...

Neil Young's surreal 1982 comedy Human Highway will finally get a nationwide theatrical release on February 29th. It will be paired with his 1979 concert movie Rust Never Sleeps and a Q&A with Young and Human Highway cast members Charlotte Stewart, Russ Tamblyn and Devo's Gerald Casale conducted by Cameron Crowe. Tickets for An Evening With Neil Young will be available on January 15th. 

Human Highway tells the story of a group of regulars at a small-town diner/gas station, with a nuclear power plant accidentally triggering the end of the world.

Last month, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the first trailer for Tremors 5: Bloodlines, which debuts on October 6. This sequel is the latest installment in a long-running franchise that started with the 1990 cult classic Tremors, starring Kevin Bacon, but the first sequel since 2004's Tremors 4: The Legend Begins. Kevin Bacon was recently promoting his indie drama Cop Car, which hits theaters this weekend, where the actor revealed he actually wants to reboot Tremors.

"I had a real dream right now, which is to reboot it, and to see the character 25 years down the line, to see what that guy may have become. There is an example of a movie that, when I started thinking about it, I hadn't seen it in 25 years and I went back and watched it recently, I was really pleasantly surprised. It's a beautiful looking movie, it really is a good film."

The actor also...

As chance would have it, the news of David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" re-return hit only a few hours after I got off the phone with Catherine E. Coulson, better known as the series' enigmatic "Log Lady." I had just spoken with the actress at length about the Showtime revival, which at the time of our interview remained in limbo following Lynch's declaration last month that he had pulled out of the project over a budget dispute. It was truly an odd coincidence, and came at a time when many fans of the original series had all but given up hope that the revival would ever make it to air. But it's clear that the dogged loyalty shown by Coulson and a number of her "Twin Peaks" co-stars, including Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook, Sherilyn Fenn, James Marshall, Madchen Amick and Kimmy Robertson -- all of whom participated in a video...

A large portion of the original Twin Peaks cast is so alarmed that David Lynch has stepped away from Showtime's revival of the series over a contract dispute that they have bandied together to launch a viral video campaign to bring the show's co-creator back.

A Facebook community page purporting to be the "official cast-run site" with the handle "Save Twin Peaks" teased the actors' protest a couple of days ago when Sherilyn Fenn, who played the cherry-stem-knotting Audrey Horne on the show, announced "in the next few hours we...

When announced last year, the whole web went berserk upon hearing the news that Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost would return for a limited series of Twin Peaks. However, due to a series of complications in the financial department, network brass refused to offer Lynch the additional time he required to properly hammer out the scripts. After a long period in which Lynch struggled to iron out negotiations with Showtime, he ultimately decided to drop out of the forthcoming season.

Immediately afterwards, Showtime posted an official statement suggesting it was fully intending to do everything in its power to lock down Lynch. Since then we’ve heard no new developments from Lynch or Showtime’s camps, but there is now a newly-launched video campaign designed to Save Twin Peaks!

In light of the iconoclastic filmmaker’s exit, the original cast of Twin Peaks have taken the matter into their own hands.

In 1974, TV audiences were introduced to the Ingalls family, a frontier clan living in a rustic cabin in the Minnesota wilderness during the 1870s and '80s. America was in the middle of its Me Decade, with an exhausting war and general upheaval at home. The weekly dramas of a farmer and his children—based on the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder—were an irresistible look at a simpler time when people based their lives around family, home, and church. (All nine seasons are available on Digital HD on Amazon; seasons 1–3 are also available on Blu-ray and DVD from Lionsgate.

It's nearly impossible to talk about Little House on the Prairie without talking about the show's director/executive producer/star, Michael Landon, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 1991. When EW reunited many members of Walnut Grove—Ingalls kids Laura (Melissa Gilbert), Mary (Melissa Anderson), Carrie (Lindsay Greenbush, who split the role with her twin sister, Sidney), and Albert (Matthew Laborteaux), along with town bully Nellie Oleson (Alison Arngrim), Laura's husband, Almanzo Wilder (Dean Butler), kindly schoolteacher Miss Beadle (Charlotte Stewart) and Ingalls matriarch Caroline (Karen Grassle)—memories of Landon were everywhere. "What I remember the most from my audition was meeting Michael Landon,...

Eraserhead

Written and directed by David Lynch

1977, USA

Midway through Eraserhead, David Lynch’s midnight-black dreamscape, the terror is momentarily interrupted by the hauntingly breathtaking song, whispered by the disfigured chipmunk-cheeked chanteuse, Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near), as if to let the audience in on something indescribable, to give them an out from the ceaselessly tiresome domestic grind.

”In heaven everything is fine,” she sings, willed into form from inside a radiator, in a tone that is both gentle and calm, and touchingly naïve.

While equally as otherworldly as what has been shown before it, it is nestled somewhere that is associative of the limitless bounds of the moving image, looking in from a point at which such problems as family, loneliness and child-rearing live, no matter the reality.

After all, Lynch establishes in this first feature of his, there is warmth, beauty and peace to be found against...

10. Altered States (1980)

Directed by: Ken Russell

Is it a horror film? Many of Ken Russell’s films could be argued as such, but there’s enough in Altered States that makes it less horror and more science fiction/psychological thriller. Based on the novel by Paddy Chayefsky, Altered States introduced the world to William Hurt (and also featured the film debut of Drew Barrymore). Edward Jessup (Hurt) is studying schizophrenia, but branches out into sensory deprivation experimentation with a floating tank. Eventually, he travels to Mexico to visit a tribe that provides him with an extract which he begins to take before his trips into the flotation tank, resulting in bizarre imagery and eventual physical devolution, once to a primitive man and to a near primordial blob. Side effects start to occur, causing Edward to suffer from episodes of partial regression even without the hallucinogenic drug. Russell’s direction shifts...

There was a time, not very long ago, when obtaining a decent copy of David Lynch’s first masterpiece, Eraserhead, was problematic. Selected in 2004 for preservation in the National Film Registry, nearly four decades of overriding nearly every other piece of flotsam and jetsam comprising the cult classic continuum, one of the most exquisite directorial debuts of all time gets a lavish Criterion Collection treatment. A film whose aural devices equal its bizarre and unforgettable visuals, outside of a theatrical screening, it’s the definitive way to experience this dream of dark and troubling things.

To outline the narrative of Eraserhead feels rather reductive since the film is a visual and auditory experience that requires first hand exposure. But, basically, it’s about a guy named Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) who is forced to marry a neurotic girlfriend, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) because she gave birth to a creature/baby he impregnated her with.

“Eraserhead” (Directed by David Lynch, 1977)

(The Criterion Collection)

Everything Ugly Is Beautiful

By Raymond Benson

One of the many excellent supplements that appear on this disc is a rare video interview from 1979 with David Lynch (and cinematographer Frederick Elmes). For those of us who have aged along with the director, it is a striking glimpse at a young artist at the beginning of his strange and wonderful career. In it, he explains that he is attracted to sometimes harsh, oppressive settings, such as the nightmarish industrial cityscape in Eraserhead. “What everyone else finds ugly, I find beautiful,” he says proudly. And the director has pretty much remained true to his word, hasn’t he?

Eraserhead is a landmark picture, but its original release in 1977 was slow to reach an audience. It gained its must-see reputation only after the film was picked up to run on the midnight movie circuit that...

The Toronto International Film Festival announced more selections Tuesday for the upcoming 2014 edition of the annual awards season kick-off. The majority of the festival's program was announced last month, but this group includes intriguing world premieres from notable directors such as Todd McCarthy ("The Cobbler") and Gina Prince-Bythewood ("Beyond the Lights"). A number of the titles revealed have screened at other festivals including the underrated "Infinitely Polar Bear" and "Laggies" from Sundance as well as Cannes players "Two Days, One Night," "The Search" and "Clouds of Sils Maria." And yes, the presence of "Sils Maria," which is a favorite of this particular writer, means Kristen Stewart will likely hit one of the festival's many red carpets. As you'd expect for Toronto, the world premieres feature some big names including Josh Hutcherson and Benicio Del Toro in "Escobar: Paradise Lost," Jean Dujardin in "The Connection (La French)," Dustin Hoffman in "Boychoir,...

The 2014 Toronto Film Festival, which begins Sept. 4, added seven Galas and 17 Special Presentations to its lineup, including a semi-serious Adam Sandler project from Tom McCarthy, the director of The Station Agent and The Visitor. In The Cobbler, Sandler plays a man who has the unique ability to walk in his customers’ shoes. The movie features Dustin Hoffman, who also stars in Boychoir, François Girard’s tale of an orphan’s steep learning curve at a prestigious music school. In Welcome to Me, Kristen Wiig plays a mentally unstable woman who wins the lottery and decides to sink her winnings into a talk show.

Expect to see a bevy of stars on the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival this September. Today, more Gala and Special Presentation titles were announced, with some star-studded projects in the mix. Now, Escobar: Paradise Lost, starring Benicio del Toro as the infamous drug lord, will have its world premiere at Tiff, as will The Forger, with John Travolta, Christopher Plummer and Tye Sheridan.

Other promising projects newly announced to be screening at Tiff are Win Win director Thomas McCarthy’s The Cobbler, which finds Adam Sandler taking on a rare dramatic role; Clouds of Sils Maria, which stars Juliette Binoche as an aging actress who confronts the young starlet (Chloe Grace Moretz) taking on the role that made her famous decades earlier; and Gemma Bovery, starring Gemma Arterton as the sensual object of a French food critic’s affection. Check out the full list of new...

The 39th Toronto International Film Festival added another seven Galas and 17 Special Presentations to its September fest lineup running September 4 to 14. Here are the newcomers:

Galas

Boychoir François Girard, USA World Premiere

An orphaned 12-year-old boy is sent to prestigious music school where he struggles to join an elite group of world-class singers. No one expects this rebellious loner to succeed, least of all the school’s relentlessly-tough conductor who wages a battle of wills to bring out the boy’s extraordinary musical gift. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Josh Lucas, Kevin McHale, Eddie Izzard, Debra Winger and Garrett Wareing.

The Connection (La French) Cédric Jimenez, France/Belgium World Premiere

Marseille, 1975. Pierre Michel, a young police magistrate with a wife and children, has just been transferred to help crack down on the city’s organized crime. He decides to take on the French Connection, a Mafia-run operation that exports heroin all over the world.

Eraserhead

Directed by David Lynch

Written by David Lynch

1977, USA

Picture the scene – a storm-swept, wintry night, with the hail and rain lashing at the flimsy, sodden windows. One hour beyond the witching hour and in a lightless living room the VHS player whirls into stuttering activity and a grainy image materializes, a floating head emerging out of the pitiless darkness to the sounds of a throbbing industrial score, and a trauma inducing title expands across the screen – Eraserhead. Yes, I think it is fair to say that my first viewing of this midnight movie masterpiece was quite a memorable affair, I was barely into my teens when I finally got my anxious little claws on a VHS copy of this bizarre looking film, one of those difficult to source movies in those pre-internet days, a movie which had been remorselessly haunting the various movie magazines and horror anthology books of my mis-spent youth.

Perhaps the thing that David Lynch is best known for in the mainstream is the television series Twin Peaks which ran from summer 1990 until spring 1991. When it debuted the series was huge, I mean huge. It infected all areas of popular culture and was like the Lost of its day with people hotly debating Who Killed Laura Palmer? The same way they debated the significance of the numbers in Lost. Twin Peaks changed prime time television forever; it pushed the limits of what you could show in terms of sex and violence and also changed the way that stories are told in ongoing arcs and plotlines that would last for many episodes. Without its initial success it’s doubtful we would have later got The X-Files and shows like Buffy the vampire slayer and Angel which ran with the serial format rather than the more common story of the week.

Few filmmakers have had as profound an effect on me as director David Lynch. When I was exposed to Twin Peaks during its initial run back in late 1990 my mind was blown out the back of my head by the possibilities of what film and television could be.

For many it was first seeing Star Wars and for other more recent generations it will be their first viewing of Fellowship of the Ring but for me it was the scene where an older Kyle Maclachlan speaks to a backwards talking dwarf in a red room and my life was changed forever.

As a result I have eagerly watched all of David Lynch’s directorial work many times over the years and await each new project eagerly. Sadly he seems to have slowed down somewhat from the productive decades of the 80’s and 90’s and has only directed two movies in the last ten years.

Throughout January, Sos writers will be biting the bullet and finally sitting down with a film they feel like bad film buffs for not having seen already.

Eraserhead

Directed by David Lynch

Written by David Lynch

1977, USA

Watching David Lynch’s Inland Empire in a near-empty cinema one Tuesday afternoon, is still the most terrifying cinematic experience I have ever had. When the movie finished and the lights came on in the cinema, I looked around and there was only one other person still sitting in their seat. A girl. She looked the same as me. Pale. My hands were clammy and my back was wet with sweat. I left and went outside. The sun was shining brightly, but I was still spooked and looking over my shoulder as I walked to the bus stop. When I closed my eyes all I could see was flashes of images from the film.

Michael York dashes onto the cinematic scene as the blundering but very enthusiastic D'Artagnan in Richard Lester's hugely enjoyable period comic romp. The late great Roy Kinnear is the long-suffering vassal of aristocratic swordsmen Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay, whilst Raquel Welch and Faye Dunaway shine as heroine and villainess, respectively. Producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind filmed the following year's sequel back-to-back with this more successful first part, which approach they would revisit shortly for Superman and Superman II. Dumas with wit, energy and integrity.

Notable Quotable: "That man in his time has insulted me, broken my father's sword, had me clubbed to the ground, laid violent hands on the woman I love! He is inconvenient. "

Martin Anderson

Mike Nichols and Buck Henry achieve what seemed impossible, at least on the evidence of an earlier attempt: to transliterate the pitch-dark war humour of Joseph Heller into a cohesive,...

Twin Peaks alumni Kimmy Robertson, Charlotte Stewart and Kathleen Wilhoite were among the celebrities who celebrated the 20th anniversary of the weird and wonderful TV drama at the recent Twin Peaks Festival.

The trio returned to North Bend and Snoqualmie in Washington, where the exteriors for the show were shot for the festivities earlier this month (06-08Aug10).

Fans of the show were treated to a screening of director and co-creator David Lynch's own 35mm copy of Twin Peaks' pilot episode at the nearby Seattle Art Museum, as well as tours, contests and meet-and-greets with cast members.

The 1990 Kevin Bacon classic Tremors is finally coming out on Blu-ray on November 9. We don't have any pricing details for this Bd release as of yet, but you can take a look at the cover art and special features below. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Michael Gross and Reba McEntire.

A small town gradually becomes aware of a strange creature which picks off people one by one. But what is this creature, and where is it? At the same time, a seismologist is working in the area, she detects _tremors_. The creature lives underground, and can 'pop up' without warning. Trapped in their town, the town-folk have no escape.

Special Features:

The Making of TremorsKevin Bacon ProfileMichael Gross ProfileReba McEntire ProfileTheatrical Trailers

Tremors was released January 19th, 1990 and stars Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Robert Jayne, Charlotte Stewart, Tony Genaro. The film is directed by Ron Underwood.

Part two of a four part interview with the Little House on the Prairie star.

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

We were big Little House on the Prairie fans growing up. As members of a large, close-knit family, we prided ourselves on being very similar to the Ingalls girls. Amy, the one with the long braids was Half-Pint, and Nancy, the one with the glasses, by default was Blind Mary. But deep down inside we had fantasies of being mean girls, like Nellie Oleson, just for one day.

We recently got a chance to speak to Nellie Olseon (known in real life as Alison Arngrim) about her new memoir, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson And Learned To Love Being Hated. It wasn't until we read the book that we understood why mean girls are mean and why we, as children blessed with a happy childhood,...

(All this month we'll be bringing back some of our favorite Halloween-themed posts, as well as digging up some brand new stuff from beyond the grave. Enjoy!)

By: Monika Bartyzel

This was supposed to be a list of horror movies appropriate for dates. Unfortunately, I kept coming up with reasons why each movie wasn't a good idea. While my rationale wasn't entirely realistic, it got me thinking about movies that open certain cans of worms. Pregnancy. Momma's boys. Infidelity. These seven flicks have got lots of relationship deal-breakers in them, and can lead to some date-damaging conversation, rather than sexy innuendo and rose petals to the bedroom. They might uncover questionable morals, or even some private kink that you just can't get into. And some will get just a little spoilery, but most of them are classics, so you probably know the gist already.

Either way, you've been warned!

Eraserhead...