10 Creepiest David Lynch Characters

Though it is quite a bold statement, Inland Empire is by far David Lynch's most perplexing work. A labyrinthine mystery that takes in dozens of characters and broken narratives, even describing the story is an impossible task. The whole movie has an aura of menace, a nightmarish and unsettling quality that makes you feel on edge even when nothing is really happening.

Even distinguishing characters is difficult, but one figure who looms large over the film is the Phantom. He is talked of often, but little is known about him. He is said to be a hypnotist, and Sue (one of the protagonists played by Laura Dern) becomes convinced that she is being stalked by him. We see little of the Phantom, until a woman hypnotised by him stabs Sue in the stomach with a screwdriver.

Sue dies, only to be replaced by Nikki, another character Laura Dern had played earlier in the film. Nikki wanders into an apartment building where she is confronted by a frightening, red-lipped man - the Phantom. Nikki shoots him and, in the most terrifying scene of the film, his face transforms first into a horribly distorted version of Nikki's own face, and then a wide-mouthed, bleeding horror that will haunt your dreams for months afterwards.

Nikki then flees, and we are left with no answers and no resolution, only a sense of unease and a deep-seated fear of hypnotists.