7 Times David Lynch Confused The Hell Out Of Us

7. The Dinner (Eraserhead)

Lynch's directorial debut, Eraserhead, is a black-and-white surrealistic nightmare. Filled with bizarre dream-like sequences (such as the girl in the radiator and finding out how pencil eraser heads are actually made), there's one particular scene which plays out in gloriously weird Lynch-o-vision.

The dinner scene sees Henry (Jack Nance) being introduced for the first time to the slightly odd parents of his girlfriend, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart). Her manic father, played by Lynch stalwart Harry Dean Stanton, is the master of demented small talk ("So, Henry. Whaddya know?"). And he's a man desperate to show Henry the current state of his knees. Mary's mother is no better, speaking in tongues whenever dinner is served, and attempting to tongue Henry's neck when she's interrogating him.

It's already the dinner party from hell then, and that's before you've seen what's on the menu. Tiny "man-made" chickens are served up and as Henry confusedly attempts to carve the little critters ("I just cut them up like regular chickens?"), he finds they're actually still alive and bleeding.

As with much of Lynch's work, the dinner scene gleefully dances the line between surreal comedy and nightmarish horror.