Menu
DEREK AUSTIN JOHNSON
  • Home
  • About
  • Bibliography
  • Contact
  • Maple Street Dispatches
  • Home
  • About
  • Bibliography
  • Contact
  • Maple Street Dispatches

ORIGINS of my love of horror 12

9/13/2022

0 Comments

 
David Lynch is not a horror director. He's never made a horror movie. While his movies deconstruct the very idea of narrative, they seldom show interest in different types of narrative conventions, and specifically horror conventions. None of his movies can specifically be considered vampire movies. None are haunted house movies. None are werewolf movies.

That doesn't mean his work holds little interest to the horror fan or horror writer. Unease and dread run through much of his filmography, and one can make the case that the contents of his movies terrify far more effectively than most horror fare. This is in part because the masters that populate his universe are more personal than the standard pantheon of either the Universal Classic Monsters or those from Hammer Studios. Both the Experiment and the Woodsmen from Twin Peaks: The Return come from the fathomless depths of Lynch's id; both are so jarring they fill one's blood with Freon.
Picture
Picture
Most horror guides point to Eraserhead as Lynch's go-to horror effort, but the first Lynch I ever encountered was Blue Velvet. It's more of a Neo-noir or psychological or erotic thriller, but it functions equally well as a horror movie. Frank Booth is one of the most psychotic characters you're likely to find outside of Patrick Bateman, while the underworld Jeffrey Beaumont enters is as surreal and uncanny as anything you'd find in the works of Clive Barker.
Picture
What is your favorite David Lynch movie? How about your favorite movie that is not marketed as horror but functions as one? Let me know in the comments.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Derek Austin Johnson has lived most of his life in the Lone Star State. His work has appeared in The Horror Zine, Rayguns Over Texas!, Horror U.S.A.: Texas, Campfire Macabre, The Dread Machine, and Generation X-ed.

    He lives in Central Texas. 

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    June 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    January 2019
    August 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    August 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed