Matisse van Rossum’s review published on Letterboxd:
Oh boy, this is a tough one to review. I don't think there's any sort of set standard as to who would and who wouldn't enjoy David Lynch's Eraserhead. It's one of those films that's entirely subjective, and its effect varies from person to person. One thing that I think can be said with absolute certainty is that it is surrealist filmmaking at its finest. It's also one of the most legitimately horrifying films I've ever seen, and that has nothing to do with cheap jump scares and an unreasonable amount of gore (although gore their certainly is). It's all about atmosphere, which Eraserhead does masterfully. It's an effect I find myself comparing to Lars von Trier's film Antichrist, which, though it is a much more recent film, uses a dark and oppressive atmosphere in a similar way to create feelings of unease and fear.
The world of Eraserhead is a nightmarish industrial hellscape that put me so on edge that I could not physically sit still no matter how hard I tried. This is due equally to the use of sound as well as the visuals. Lynch's sound design in this film is absolutely astounding for its time. It's meticulous and perfectly layered, and none of it is pleasant. Whether it's the unending industrial grinding and droning or the incessant crying and gasping of Henry's mutant infant, the audio will absolutely make you squirm. The set pieces are dark and claustrophobic with a wrongness that is deliciously disturbing. Eraserhead is a film that doesn't rely on dialogue or even story to create an effect. It's all about what you see coupled with what you hear, and it's executed so masterfully that it completely sucks you in, to a world that every fiber of your being resists existing in because of its sheer wrongness. And don't even get me started on the baby. Everything about it is disgusting and terrifying. Lynch is still secretive about how it was made and how it worked. No one is really sure, and this somehow makes it that much more horrifying.
Eraserhead is an incredibly thematic film, focusing more on certain themes and how they're developed rather than the development of a narrative. Henry Spencer is an everyman character, whose blank personality allows us to superimpose ourselves onto him and question how we would handle emotions such as the fear of being a parent and the need to kill our own child which disgusts and horrifies us. These are not easy things to think about, but Lynch forces us as an audience to do so whether we like it or not, and that's part of what makes this such an effective film. Eraserhead is not a horror film in the traditional sense, but after my first viewing I find myself realizing that it is one of the scariest and most disturbing films I've ever seen. It's an unparalleled surrealist masterpiece.