First off, please forgive me - this is going to sound very EBK. I'm not crazy or high. I just finished watching Eraserhead for the first time. My god, THAT'S a real piece of cinematography if I've ever seen one. If you haven't seen it, please do. Watching it, I came to realize that it had very deeply subconscious tones - you don't need to understand it to realize what's going on. The world in that film is a place that isn't unfamiliar territory - it's reminiscent of a fever-induced dark dream. Imagery that shows up in your primal fears. Lovecraftian. It's very similar to the Silent Hill games (to me at least), primarily when you go over to to the "dark side". Dark, rusty, industrial, noisy, bloody, akin to hell - but not exactly hell. Or maybe it is? Anyway, the film made me realize that I've seen that place before. I've felt that place. Subconsciously, in dreams, I've been there. Now, the question is, do you know the place I'm talking about? Does it exist somewhere besides the human mind? Is it part of the human experience, a subconscious mob hallucination? I know I'm not the only one that has experienced it. What/where is this "world underneath"?
A lot of my dreams were like this when I was younger, depressed and a heavy drug user. Oddly enough, when my wife was watching the movie version of the musical "Chicago" there is a sequence where the guy is singing on what looks like an abandoned stage. It's dirty, dusty, dingy, disarrayed and the lighting is bizarre. I got creeped out at first, then realized why, it looked like the uncomfortable dreams I had. I think it may be a dream archetype, one of those pieces of subconscious imagery that is universal to nearly everyone.
It's your mind being pumped full of naturally occurring chemicals and hormones from your body. Hope that helped. -Turbo
I also noticed a lot of this type of imagery in Se7ev and Fight Club while re-watching them recently, I guess David Fincher has these types dreams too.
But why do you think it's universal to nearly everyone? The actual setting itself doesn't seem necessarily horrific, but it seems a lot of people envision such a dark place unconsciously in a similar fashion. Is it a cultural thing? Do we have some kind of racial memory that tells us that place is horrific? It's not just the place, but the things that inhabit it - embryonic horrors, worms, crabby-things, mutants...these are all archetypes of some underlying, unknown fear. Creepy embryo-things really bug me for some reason - and I can't explain why they do, or why they are so prevalent in nightmare material.
Do you mean Jungian/Collective unconscious type stuff? I'm not sure, it would be interesting to see if this type of imagery is purely a western manifestation or if is multicultural. I think I'm going to do some googleing on the subject now...
This is purely speculation, but it could be that many people have a fascination with (or dread of) the decay of their usual environment. A look through any photographer's portfolio ought to turn up at least one ruined factory, mouldering house, or wind-sculpted dead tree. That's why urban spelunking exists, and why the vast ruins of Tomb Raider and the later Prince of Persia are compelling. It's a powerful feeling, to be alive, when everything you're used to looks dead.
Im not crazy, nor am I high, but I am guessing it was a past life. Or possibly one of the places that your soul goes to after your body dies, but before your next life. Seriously. Now if you believe that you do not have a soul, then your going to have to rely on science as we currently understand it. Might be a brain thing.
I had to watch Eraserhead as part of my college film appreciate class. Wow. What a trip. I stll can recall scenes from that movie vividly and I do agree with you that Silent Hill seems to have been partially inspired by it. Wow. The turkey dinner scene comes to mind right now. Maybe that embryonic organism bothered you because of some weird passive resemblence to a father cutting ties between a son? Man, Eraserhead was nothing but a sea of visual and subconscious imagery.
Wow. You're lucky. Periodically I have these weird dreams with powerful emotions tied to them (usually sadness or grief) and I see faces, full color, details the whole nine yards. It is like those psychic dreams some people have.
DC mentioned david fincher and it reminded me of david lynch, but i think with david lynch, all hes doing is mirroring hollywood, so much for that theory.
I have the same, but I can't really remember smelling anything in a dream. I have tasted in dreams, so smelling can't be that far off. They say something like only 5% of the populace dreams in color - I think that figure is incorrect. I don't see how Eraserhead was mirroring anything but this own mind. I can see how Mulholland Drive would make you think that, but only because it's about Hollywood. I have yet to see Blue Velvet - it's in the Netflix queue.
Have those dreams too I think , or used too. Somewhere in a deep & dark solitary world. Black , white and grey with blurry music playing from somewhere. Almost feels like Im way back in the early 1800's or early 1900's or something. Puts gothic to shame I dunno , makes me sound wierd talking about it. The spookie eerie underground music In paper Mario for Gamecube and the mirror scene in the movie 'the Ring' also makes me feel like Im near it. I might knife fight you all and go hide there afterward
Ok, now that makes a little sense. I can see that. It would explain why so many people have similar visions. It's a purgatory-like place we've all been to at one point.
yea. this is all basicly the same idea. It's something we've all experienced at one point. And the only thing i can think of that every human has experienced like that is developing inside mom. Dark, bloody, ... weird nosies you didn't understand. Best i can come up with. i haven't had a dream like this to my knowledge. i forget most all of my deams the second i wake up. I know i was dreaming something that was cool, but... sometimes ... a lot of times in my dreams i can't see stuff. (these are in the dreams that i remember). like i look at the floor but can't look back up, or if i do it's shadow-E.
