Who doesn’t love babies? They’re cute, bubbly and round. They’re a ten-pound little human, a reactive and inquisitive bundle of joy. No matter who you are or what mood you’re in, you’re compelled to respond to babies with a goofy expression, to make them laugh and clap, to be the familiar face they smile at — to be the best thing they see all day.
This is not the case with the baby in David Lynch’s (“Mulholland Drive”) horrific “Eraserhead.” In the film, Henry (Jack Nance, “Lost Highway”) has an unexpected child with his girlfriend, and things take a turn when all of his ugly anxieties about fatherhood are somehow reflected in the baby’s appearance. That baby is a ghastly thing, a skinny and slimy lizard-like eye-sore. Spike (an appropriate name given how painful he is to look at) is disgusting. Every time he moves, it’s discomforting, like watching pus ooze out of a freshly agitated wound. One recoils just looking at him, and the bandage covering half of his body only adds to his unseemly appearance, making whatever disgusting features hidden beneath it more salient in our minds. Unlike a normal baby, Spike doesn’t smile, laugh or cry. Instead, he screeches with intense effort, as though something were lodged in his throat and the very act of communicating his pain shoves that object further down. One often feels that the best thing to do with Spike is to let him be, or to flee, or better yet, to end his life — for his sake and ours.
If we can somehow remove ourselves from the nightmarish world of “Eraserhead” and view it purely as a film, Spike is an impressive prop, one that induces maximum discomfort. Too impressive, in fact. The baby’s design incites such a primal fear and knee-jerk disgust that it begs the question: How did Lynch make it, especially with an unfathomably low production budget of $10,000?
Unfortunately, not much of anything is known about Spike. In the 1997 book “Lynch on Lynch,” filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley asked Lynch about the baby. Lynch, in typical no-bullshit fashion, said “I don’t want to talk about it.” In fact, no one has ever talked about it. Lynch, ever the enigmatic auteur, had the cast and crew sign releases agreeing to secrecy. Even those who were on set but didn’t sign knew nothing about Spike. The projectionist who screened the dailies for “Eraserhead” was blindfolded so no credible rumors could float around. No set photos were taken either. In short, we have nothing to work off of besides intuition. What’s going on here? What is Lynch trying to hide?
Nearly 50 years later, no one knows more than they did upon “Eraserhead’s” release, but this hasn’t stopped people from speculating.
In the end credits of “Eraserhead,” Lynch gives special thanks to “Marvin Goodwin, M.D.” Many theorists suspected that Dr. Goodwin may have played an important role in Spike’s appearance, because who else but a medical professional could aid in the creation of such a monstrosity? It’s a compelling thought, but behind-the-scenes drama provides a better explanation for Dr. Goodwin’s credit: “In midproduction, at three in the morning Jack Nance (the lead actor) was drunk again. … There was an incredible pain in his stomach. The doctor came in and told David Lynch that Jack Nance was 30 but had the body of a 50-year-old man, that Jack had liver damage.”
Even assuming that Goodwin or any uncredited medical professional oversaw Spike’s appearance, that still fails to explain how the baby was constructed. We know for certain that Spike is not alive (what a consolation) and that, more likely than not, he is a puppet, with some specifically suggesting that he is a hand puppet. If we look closely at Spike, there is an abnormally deep pillow indentation at his head, suggesting that an operator might be puppeteering below the table. However, in different scenes, where Spike visibly moves and we can see underneath the table, there appears to be no room for a puppeteer — unless they’re ghosts. If Lynch and his crew steered clear of a hand puppet, then what about animatronics? In the film industry, animatronic puppets have been increasingly used in productions since the release of the 1964 musical “Mary Poppins.” Unfortunately, Lynch didn’t have Disney money to play around with, at least not a thick enough wad of cash to justify such equipment for only a few select shots. Once again, we’re back to square one.
How about Spike’s look? This is where shit hits the fan. Some claim that Spike is constructed from an embalmed calf or lamb fetus, which is why Lynch has kept the Spike puppet a secret — it’s simply too disgusting to think about. After some traumatizing research, Spike does have a remarkable resemblance to an aborted lamb fetus, especially with the location of its eyes and the structure of its stout, vaguely reptilian face — a calf fetus, on the other hand, has too small of a snout relative to its skull. This theory sounds ridiculous, but Lynch is no stranger to collecting dead animals to explore the “organic phenomenon.” Lynch’s collection worried his family so much that his father — upon seeing Lynch’s basement of decaying animals — advised him to not have children. In preparation for “Eraserhead” specifically, Lynch had dissected a dead cat to study “textures.”
However, there are some inherent challenges to using an embalmed animal fetus. Due to financial issues, “Eraserhead” was a five-year-long production, making the idea that Lynch had preserved the fetus for the entire duration a practical snafu — though not inconceivable. Alternatively, Lynch may have found the fetus in the course of making the film, but that seems too dependent on happenstance for a prop so expressly designed for discomfort. Both animal fetus scenarios also fail to account for rigor mortis, which would hinder Spike’s sporadic and naturalistic movements in the film. Additionally, the process of embalming stiffens the body, resulting in the same problem as before. Lastly, an animal fetus on set is not conducive to a sanitary shooting environment, as it would certainly stink up the place and invite many critters — too brazen and impractical for a first-time director.
Simply, Lynch could have been inspired by an animal fetus and used either rubber or latex for Spike. That logical explanation still invites many questions: How is the prop so realistic? Did he make it? If not, who did and how did he pay for it? Who based Spike on an animal fetus? How did someone find an animal fetus? Most importantly, if Spike were made out of something as banal as rubber or latex, why is Lynch so secretive about it? In the interview with Rodley, he argues that revealing the puppet would ruin the magic: “People don’t realize it, but as soon as they hear or see (how the prop was created), something dies inside them” But everyone can easily research the Xenomorphs’ production in “Alien,” and knowing that information doesn’t diminish their terrifying presence in the film. How would that be any different with Spike?
All we have are questions, and Lynch wants it that way. Not only has he sworn himself and others to secrecy, but he’d rather us stop thinking about it altogether: “(The making of Spike) has nothing to do with the film.” I, for one, am willing to accept the mystery, but Lynch would be wrong to say that this thing has nothing to do with “Eraserhead.”
What makes Spike so compelling as a prop and character is how inconceivably grotesque and eerily realistic he is. His presence invites these questions, which, on a practical level, make the experience of “Eraserhead” better. Knowing that nothing quite explains what you see on screen only adds to the horror and the surreal atmosphere of the film. Like a real baby, Spike calls on you, without it needing to do as much but exist. No matter its actions, you’re compelled to respond to the baby with a grimace, to avert your eyes and to push it away. Spike is a repulsive and frightening creation, one whose mystery has everything to do with the timeless allure of “Eraserhead.”
Daily Arts Writer Ben Luu can be reached at benllv@umich.edu.
The post Frights, Camera, Action: Let’s talk about the baby in ‘Eraserhead’ appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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