It took years and years to make “Eraserhead” and it didn’t pay off. There’s a reason why “Star Wars” and “Metropolis” work so well, they feature fully-realised environments brimming with little details; “Eraserhead” is as empty as they come. A depressing film from David Lynch, who has disappointed me with his other work including the tv series “Twin Peaks” and his movie “Dune”.

“Eraserhead” tells the story (well sort-of tells a story) about a nervous fellow named Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) and his mutant baby. It’s done in black and white but and full of camera tricks yet if feels poorly executed and forced; it’s like a home movie wanting to be “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

I kind-of like Jack Nance as he stands there with bizarre hair and offers long pauses before every response his gives yet he feels more like something from a satire than from a movie like this. Everyone else is strange yet not in an endearing way but more in an off-putting sense. The characters are only used as tools to further distance the viewer from the film with the awkward dialog and performances. I felt that the mutant baby didn’t look all that impressive.

“Eraserhead” and other work by Lynch has been highly praised so maybe I’m missing something but his stuff always seems to be as unengaging as possible. Some abstract pictures really worked for me but I found this film to just be strange noises, long pauses, uninteresting characters and meaninglessness. “Eraserhead” offered one performance and one character that may have been good in a less serious film and that’s all that I can say positive about it. The movie is said to be like nightmare and it is but then I realised any nightmares I’ve ever had were still more coherent and more interesting than anything in “Eraserhead”.