The 1977 David Lynch film described as a surreal black-and-white horror set in an industrial world was Eraserhead. It was Lynch’s feature-length directorial debut and established the unsettling visual and sonic style that would define much of his later work.
Jack Nance stars as Henry Spencer, a withdrawn man living in a bleak industrial landscape. After learning that his girlfriend has given birth to a severely deformed infant, Henry is forced into an anxious version of domestic responsibility. The film uses disturbing imagery, dream logic, and an oppressive soundscape instead of explaining its world through conventional narrative.
Eraserhead was produced with help from the American Film Institute, where Lynch was studying. Financial problems stretched production over several years, and Lynch worked extensively on the film’s sound design. Although often called horror, it also incorporates body horror, science fiction, psychological drama, and surrealism. It is not Dune, Lynch’s later 1984 science-fiction adaptation, nor The Elephant Man, his 1980 historical drama.