Fresh off his Mulholland Drive being named the best film of the 21st century (so far), a new video essay delves into the works of David Lynch and explores the chief narrative constructs that fuel his vision. Channel Criswell (a.k.a. Lewis Bond) delves into film theory and the Freudian school of thought to explore exactly what “Lynchian” means, besides just a buzzword for saying something is weird. Bond’s “David Lynch—The Elusive Subconscious” is a 20-minute video that serves as a careful meditation on the artist’s oeuvre and looks at what makes his works so effective, so chilling, and so haunting.
Bond’s video looks at the way that Lynch uses images, audio, and psychological echoes of the subconscious to haunt audiences. By living in what Freud termed the “uncanny,” that space-between that is both frightening yet familiar, Lynch’s works lull viewers into Americana iconography and a false sense of pleasantness, while underneath it all lurks something much darker and sinister. It’s a great video that approaches Lynch’s film and television in a singular way and sheds light on a filmmaker who prefers to operate in the darkness.