La Maschera del Demonio, Mario Bava, Eraserhead, David Lynch
Written by Joe D on July 17th, 2007Here is the trailer for Black Sunday and a short trailer for Eraserhead. I think they rate a comparison. The images are kind of similar. An obsession with texture, skin, mortified flesh, mud, decay, decomposition, punctured heads, a sexual revulsion, irresistable, much to the horror of the aroused. Bava’s tells a story, a vampire story that ends with the death of the monster. A monster brought to life by a drop of blood dripped into the eye socket of the corpse of the once beautiful, sexually voracious vampire. Eraserhead tells a story of a monster, brought to life by sperm ejaculated into a vagina. I have a theory, once upon a time David Lynch lived in Philadelphia, the mid 60’s. He experimented with mind altering drugs, LSD for example. He went to a run down movie theater and watched Mario Bava’s La Maschera del Demonio, released in America as Black Sunday. It had a profound effect on him, like Bava he became a master of the Art/Horror film.