Three of David Lynch’s Creepiest Characters

There’s noting like a Lynch film to bring on the creep factor. He just turned 70, and is working on the highly anticipated new Twin Peaks series airing next year, and I’m excited to see how he will out-creep himself with this new incarnation. He has in spades what I think is lacking from many American directors – the ability to make his audience feel an indefinable sense of discomfort and distaste, one that is delicious to people who appreciate a good creeping out, and one that some people can’t handle or appreciate. Those who like happy endings do not like Lynch’s work, which so often leaves one with a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. It’s awesome that someone who deals so heavily in the surreal is so well able to capture reality. Anyway, in celebration of his birth on this planet, and the birth of so many awesome films (and TV shows), here are three clips of some of his creepiest, most surreal and strange characters:

BOB – Twin Peaks

Bob is creepy as fuck. He comes out of nowhere looking like the murderous drifter outcast from so many urban legends and old murder stories. You just know he killed Laura…but did he? Is he even human? WTF is going on???

THE OLD PEOPLE – Mulholland Drive

This old couple are the perfect Lynch antagonists. They seem harmless and nice, until they drive Naomi Watts insane. They have that great quick demon shuffle going on that’s been a staple of so many hour movie villains since. If by any chance you haven’t seen this movie (which would be weird), this clip is the very end, so don’t watch it.

THE MYSTERY MAN – Lost Highway

Lost Highway is another celebration of the surreal, with Bill Pullman existing in a weird nightmarish dream of being two people, both in increasingly shitty situations. He meets a seriously weird and evil looking guy – the Mystery Man – at a party, who may be one of Lynch’s most unsettling creations, and haunts Pullman throughout the movie.