Eraserhead(1977)
1977 · David Lynch · 89 min
First-time father Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
Horror · Science Fiction
7.32.9k votes
TMDB score
5/5
Intensity
2/5
Gore
5/5
Stays with you
How scary is Eraserhead?
You come out of it feeling like you just had a fever dream that wouldn't end, unsettled in a way that's hard to explain to anyone else. The pace is slow and heavy, with long stretches of industrial noise and silence that build a suffocating, off feeling rather than any quick scares. It's less about a monster jumping out and more about wrongness soaking into everything: sounds, faces, rooms all feel slightly broken. This is for people who like strange, artsy horror that messes with your head rather than anyone looking for a straightforward scary movie night.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Eraserhead rates psychological 5/5, visceral 2/5, gore 2/5, lingering effect 5/5, and overall intensity 5/5.
- Psychological: 5 of 5
- Visceral: 2 of 5
- Gore: 2 of 5
- Lingering: 5 of 5
- Intensity: 5 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 5 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 45 of 100 — balanced
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 90 of 100 — leans Disturbing
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A slow, suffocating dread that never fully breaks, building through queasy discomfort into a sustained, nightmarish crescendo near the end.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 5, 4.
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