'Eraserhead' - The Definitive Midnight Movie Quiz

Answer: David Lynch

It took David Lynch nearly five years procure enough financing to finish this enthralling film. He even took up a paper route himself to help get the needed funds. Many of his friends donated their time, help and even food to the cause.

Answer: Henry Spencer

Henry Spencer was never referred to as "Eraserhead", and that word was not used anywhere in the dialogue of the film.

Henry (and his girlfriend Mary) were characters that David Lynch had taken from another project that he was working on, a script titled "Gardenback". When he joined the American Film Institute in 1970, he was working on that script, but was bored with it. He was told that he could instead film "Eraserhead", and began a very peculiar odyssey in filmmaking.

Actor Jack Nance had to maintain his odd hairstyle over the entire five-year period that it took complete the film. Luckily, the majority of the bizarre effect of the hairstyle came from simply combing his hair up.

Jack did seem to get rewarded for his troubles though, with a role in in almost every David Lynch film, as well as a prominent part on the television show "Twin Peaks".

Tragically, Jack Nance was murdered in 1996, during a dispute at a donut shop.

Answer: Everything is fine

The Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near) sang it to Henry during one of his many dreams about her and her little stage inside the radiator. By some interpretations, she represented or was an embodiment of Death, and the radiator was a means by which Henry was thinking of meeting her (i.e., suicide).

This oddly-evocative song, often known as the "Lady in the Radiator Song", was written and sung by Peter Ivers. The pipe organ accompanying the song was played by Fats Waller.

Unfortunately, Peter Ivers was killed in 1983, the victim of a still-unsolved robbery and murder.

A cover version of the song was later recorded by the Pixies.

Answer: He stepped in a puddle

The opening of "Eraserhead" set the atmosphere of the film, as Henry walked home through a bleak urban landscape. We saw no one besides Henry on the streets, and strange mechanical noises in the distance often attracted his attention.

In the original cut, Henry also came upon a tar-covered dead cat that got stuck to his shoe by a wire. This scene was cut after the first premiere, and most of the footage lost; the only remaining bit of that segment is used for the menus on the DVD that David Lynch released of the movie.

One of the few continuity mistakes in the film is a follow-up to this scene. When Henry got home, he took off his right shoe and sock, to allow the sock to dry on the radiator. He had stepped into the puddle with his left foot.

Answer: A dead tree

The dead tree did not appear to be in a pot or planter of any kind - it was merely sitting there atop a pile of dirt. Some reviewers have speculated that the tree was a representation of a crucifix or some other religious totem; others considered the idea that it might just be there to look weird. It is really up to the viewer to decide. David Lynch rarely, if ever, talks about the symbolism of "Eraserhead", other than to say that no reviewer or critic has gotten it entirely right.

A similar plant was featured in David Lynch's earlier short film, "The Grandmother", in which a neglected and abused young boy grows his own grandparent.

Answer: He told her he was on vacation

This started out as one of the few nearly normal moments of Henry visit with Mary and her family. During this brief conversation however, Mary's mother had to bring Mary out of some sort of seizure by combing her hair. Henry also later mentioned that he worked at Lapelle's factory, as a printer. Mary's mother said that Henry seemed to be quite a clever fellow.

Mrs. X (Jeanne Bates) was later considerably less composed, making a raving exit from the dinner table and having a very uncomfortable conversation with Henry about his relationship with her daughter.

Answer: They were man-made

Bill (Allen Joseph) mentioned to Henry that this new kind of chicken was also no bigger than his fist.

At dinner, Bill told Henry about an operation that he had on his arm fourteen years earlier. The doctors told him he'd never move his left arm again. Bill kept massaging it for thirty minutes a day until he could use it again, but he said it was completely numb. His unfeeling arm was the reason he asked Henry to carve the chickens.

Answer: He was a plumber

Bill started getting irate as he commented about how he had seen the neighborhood change from a "pasture to the hell-hole it is now." He angrily mentioned that he had put in "every pipe in the neighborhood". His entire conversation was nearly drowned out by noises of trains and machinery from the outside the house.

Answer: It was a photograph of Mary X

The ripped photograph of Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) seemed to indicate that she and Henry had broken up on a bad note. Henry brought out the remains of the photograph after receiving the message that Mary wanted him to come for dinner that night. Even with the invitation, Henry still remarked to Mary that he hadn't been sure that she wanted him to come.

Answer: Fats Waller

The legendary Thomas "Fats" Waller provided the music for "Eraserhead", which featured several of his noted pieces, including "Digah's Stomp", "Lenox Avenue Blues", "Stompin' the Bug" and "Messin' Around with the Blues". Almost all of Waller's music used the pipe organ, and the combination of it, with the ambient and eerie score that David Lynch and Peter Ivers provided, helped with the general creepiness of the film.