Eraserhead Intro: a surreal sex scene

Eraserhead is a pure nightmare centred around the primal fear of becoming a father, more specifically the father of a creature that vaguely remember a baby. The concept of “something wrong is happening” is clearly represented in the first 5 minutes of the movie. A silent introduction symbolizes all the processes of the conception in few minutes, from the sexual act to the birth. From the monstrous aspect of the spermatozoon it is clear that something is not going in the right direction.

Part 1 – Sex: Void but happy the face of the main character is floating around, with a vacuous expression, without any worry. The asteroid is in the background, symbolizing the femininity. The camera starts to zoom inside the surface of the planet, before entering in a mysterious house with a hole in the roof. The sexual act is happening and the protagonist is worried of his own inexperience. Entering the house is the climax of the penetration when all the worries are forgotten.

Part 2 – Deus ex machina: A mysterious man horrible disfigured is sitting in front of a window, with a set of levers close to him. He is waiting for something. He is the man behind the destiny, a bad joke of luck, a bored deus ex machina that decides when something wrong will happen during the conception.

Part 3 – Ejaculation: The face of the protagonist is with the mouth open in a sort of ecstasy. A monstrous creature that looks like an alien spermatozoon crawls from his mouth. This is the moment of the ejaculation, but clearly the spermatozoo is not a standard one, it is a horrible monstrosity.

Part 4 – Fecundation: The horrible man pulls a lever and the deformed spermatozoo starts to move. He then presses a second lever and the creature falls inside a pool of liquid on the surface of the asteroid, the exact moment of the fecundation. The disfigured man guides the moment of the fecundation, deciding the destiny of the spermatozoo, its path and its probabilities of succeed.

Part 5 – Birth: A long tunnel brings to the light. This is the act of the birth. All is concluded with the worried face of the main character. The monstrous spermatozoon will give birth to something not human.