Jessie’s Saturday Night Fright Flick: David Lynch’s MULLHOLLAND DRIVE

Movie junkie Jessie Robbins picks a fright flick for a Saturday night.

I was fifteen when at school, I lamented to my friends that my mom and I wanted to watch a scary movie that night, but had nothing to watch (I think many people have the same problem when it comes to clothes to wear).  A friend of mine, a film nerd himself and usually very quiet piped up, “I actually have a film in my backpack right now that is absolutely wonderful and terrifying, you can borrow it if you like.”  Ever hungry for that next hit of horror, I snatched the film greedily out of his hands and looked to the cover with wonder, Naomi Watts, clutching a telephone in her hands with a look of urgency across her face.  

It wasn’t until that night, watching this film, in it’s entirety, with my mother that I realized that, while this film is stunning…maybe I should be clear next time to this particular friend that I would be watching this with..my mother!

This film was David Lynch’s epic MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001).

Being my first experience watching anything directed by the genius that is David Lynch I indeed had many questions after the initial watch.  Especially because what I was expecting was exactly what it explained on the back of the DVD case: A woman gets into a car accident and loses her memory, and enlists the help of an aspiring actress to figure out who she really is.

I was wrong to expect that.

MULHOLLAND DRIVE. from it’s first moment, is a thrilling look into desperation, greed, and regret. It is dreams falling apart and the depression that goes along with it. It exists on two different levels, or planes of existence, and you find yourself trying to piece together the puzzle long before you should. It is best to watch this film in its entirety before trying to make any assumptions about what is actually going on.

Angelo Badalamenti returns as Lynch’s musical muse, giving us a dramatic and longing score, as is characteristic from his work on TWIN PEAKS and BLUE VELVET. 

While not a film that I would necessarily consider a “true” horror film, there are certainly terrifying elements throughout, particularly one early on in the film, involving a diner, that may be one of the most effective exercises in suspense I have ever seen in any film.  Even watching it again, and again, and again, as I have, I still wince and look behind myself cautiously before this scene commences.

Naomi Watts essentially plays two different characters in this film, or at least two aspects of the same character, light and darkness. The juxtaposition of almost childlike wonder and whimsy with a character much more morose and shrouded in pain is executed expertly. Justin Theroux seemingly lives a double life in this film as well, and in one instance almost mirrors the audience’s confusion and bewilderment. All of the performances in this film are great, even when the actors are just pretending to be actors.   As an aside, keep an eye out for a breathtaking performance during the ladies’ visit to “Club Silencio” that leaves me in tears every damn time.

Equal parts romance, drama, horror, mystery, surrealism and Lynch, which I suggest should be a genre in itself, MULHOLLAND DRIVE is easily one of my all time favorite films (I was going to say “of the 2000’s” but realized that it’s much more than that for me). 

As I said at the beginning of this novel, this is the film that introduced me to David Lynch, and has kept me coming back for more and more. If you haven’t seen MULHOLLAND DRIVE or it’s been like a month since you’ve seen it like it has been for me, I suggest you sit in a chair with it’s back against a wall, bust out your favorite movie snacks, invite a couple of open-minded friends or your mom over, and get to it.

Back again to my first time watching.  As the dust settled and the credits began to roll, I looked at my mom and thought, “Oh my God what is she going to say about this…”

She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment while I held my breath, is she going to think I’m nuts?  Is she going to suggest I get some different friends? She opened her mouth to speak, “So what do you think it means?”  

My mom’s cooler than your mom.