David Lynch did far more than just make “weird” movies, given how moving his work could be (see The Elephant Man and The Straight Story), and because even his strange films (like Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me) had exceptionally insightful things to say about certain realities. Nonetheless, his eccentric stylistic choices made him stand out as a filmmaker, so much so that the term “Lynchian” now exists.
Essentially, if a movie is Lynchian, it means it has the sorts of qualities one typically associates – fairly or otherwise – with the work of David Lynch. The following films indeed feel Lynchian, in one way or another, and the ranking below includes movies that came out before Lynch directed anything (and might’ve inspired the man himself) and movies that came out after Lynch started directing (that could well have taken influence from some of his best-known work).
10
‘Last Year at Marienbad’ (1961)
Directed by Alain Resnais
Some films feel avant-garde but are surprisingly approachable for those not used to more experimental stuff, and then some films are like Last Year at Marienbad. Calling this one challenging would be underselling it, because there’s a certain logic and style here that continues to feel haunting and mysterious, even after 60+ years.
This one came out well before the term “Lynchian” ever existed, but the dreamlike quality of the narrative and the constant ambiguity about, well, pretty much everything here puts Last Year at Marienbad in step with some of Lynch’s most puzzling works. It’s a film that explores memory, longing, and loneliness in a way that feels difficult to define or sometimes even comprehend. It’s not an easy movie to watch by any means, but it’s worth a shot if you’re willing to feel befuddled for the better part of 95 minutes.
Last Year at Marienbad
- Release Date
-
September 29, 1961
- Runtime
-
94 Minutes
-
-
Giorgio Albertazzi
Le narrateur
-
9
‘Caché’ (2005)
Directed by Michael Haneke
If you’ve seen David Lynch’s Lost Highway before sitting down to watch Caché, there will be elements of the latter that’ll feel inevitably familiar to you. Both films deal with paranoia and unfold like slow-burn thrillers, with the receiving of mysterious videotapes being a key part of the story in both films.
Michael Haneke is a very different filmmaker than David Lynch, though, so Caché does ultimately branch off in different directions while retaining a visual style that isn’t super comparable to Lost Highway… but might be a little similar to the very digital/unsettling Inland Empire? That film came out a year after Caché, and is probably Lynch’s most incomprehensible effort. Anyway, rambling aside, if you like the feeling of paranoia that Lynch’s most unsettling films evoke, Caché is pretty easy to recommend.
Caché
- Release Date
-
February 17, 2006
- Runtime
-
117 minutes
8
‘Dream Scenario’ (2023)
Directed by Kristoffer Borgli
Among all the darkness, doom, and gloom found throughout David Lynch’s work, there’s also a good bit of humor, perhaps demonstrated best by the lighter/sunnier moments in Twin Peaks. If you like that side of Lynch and don’t mind the idea of surreal/psychological comedy being a bit broader in style, then Dream Scenario is a more recent movie well worth checking out.
There’s some light horror here, but things generally stay within the realm of the fantasy/comedy genres, with a great premise here involving one man’s life spiraling out of control after he starts showing up in the dreams of countless people around the world. It’s a bit silly and sometimes unsettling, generally balancing things well tonally while also standing out for the fact that it perfectly utilizes Nicolas Cage, and that’s something that’s always great to see (Cage himself worked with David Lynch earlier in his career, starring in Wild at Heart).
Dream Scenario
- Release Date
-
November 10, 2023
- Runtime
-
100 Minutes
7
‘Persona’ (1966)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Few filmmakers made quite the mark on world cinema that Ingmar Bergman did, with Persona being both one of his best films and one of his most psychologically intense. The story here centers on two women, one of whom seems troubled and closed off, and the other who’s given the task of looking after her. Then, weird things start happening, gradually at first but escalating increasingly as things go on.
Persona is included here because it’s an interesting look at the idea of doubles, and that’s something David Lynch liked to explore, seen to an especially strong extent in Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway. Persona must have been a real shock to the system back in 1966, because even close to six decades on from its release, it still feels perplexing, unnerving, and even rather subversive.
6
‘Skinamarink’ (2022)
Directed by Kyle Edward Ball
Skinamarink is most comparable to Eraserhead, if we’re talking David Lynch films. Eraserhead was his feature film debut and probably the most horror-focused movie he ever made, and Skinamarink is similarly a work of horror that was made on a fairly restricted budget, making the most out of a reduced scope and a fairly simple premise.
Eraserhead looks at the terror of being a parent in a surreal way, while Skinamarink is largely about how frightening it can be to be a child, also playing on fears of the unknown and getting intensely surreal at times. Both movies aren’t going to be for everyone, and prove challenging as far as horror films go, but it’s also somewhat inspiring to see risks being taken in works like this. If you want a confounding and nightmarish double feature, you could do worse than watching Lynch’s debut and Skinamarink back-to-back.
Skinamarink
- Release Date
-
January 13, 2023
- Runtime
-
100 minutes
5
‘Perfect Blue’ (1997)
Directed by Satoshi Kon
It’s not precisely comparable to Mulholland Drive, but Perfect Blue thoroughly scratches a similar itch, all the while being among the greatest anime films ever made. Both movies start as somewhat surreal explorations of the entertainment world, focusing on aspiring actresses, and then both take turns into the nightmarish as things go along and become more confusing.
It might be slightly easier to get a handle on Perfect Blue’s plot, considering it doesn’t branch off or go on as many tangents as Mulholland Drive (seemingly) does, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less unsettling or ultimately disturbing. There is something intensely off about so much of Perfect Blue, and it’s truly impressive how unstable and uncomfortably introspective it’s able to get, all within a runtime that clocks in at under 90 minutes.
Perfect Blue
- Release Date
-
August 5, 1997
- Runtime
-
81 Minutes
4
‘I Saw the TV Glow’ (2024)
Directed by Jane Schoenbrun
Skillfully paying homage to the more nightmarish parts of Twin Peaks while also very much being its own thing, I Saw the TV Glow unpacks things like identity, memory, trauma, and television in fascinating ways. It mostly revolves around two teenagers who are obsessed with an obscure show called The Pink Opaque, to the point where it starts to change their personalities and maybe even the world around them.
There’s also more to it than just that, and where I Saw the TV Glow does eventually go really shouldn’t be spoiled, because doing so would risk diluting its impact. It’s one of the most haunted-feeling films released in recent years, and even if it’s not exceptionally scary while you’re watching it, the way parts are likely to linger in your memory once it’s over reveals its immense power as a movie.
3
‘Vertigo’ (1958)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Given Alfred Hitchcock was a distinctive filmmaker, there aren’t many films of his that necessarily feel Lynchian, but he did direct Vertigo, which feels as though it might’ve inspired certain movies Lynch directed. This 1958 film was ahead of its time, delving deep into the troubled mind of a man who’s tasked with looking over the mysterious wife of one of his closest friends.
But then obsession takes over, startling revelations are made, and Vertigo travels into some thematically complex and honestly very unsettling territory. Perhaps a little like the aforementioned Persona, doubles play a role in the narrative here, but elaborating further wouldn’t be fair on the off chance you’re yet to see Vertigo. It doesn’t just hold up well for a movie of its age, but so much of it genuinely feels close to timeless.
Vertigo
- Release Date
-
May 9, 1958
- Runtime
-
128 minutes
2
‘Under the Silver Lake’ (2018)
Directed by David Robert Mitchell
Under the Silver Lake is not shy about feeling Lynchian, with a persistent feeling of paranoia being found here, and a story that involves corruption, intrigue, and overwhelming darkness in Los Angeles. That’s a setting David Lynch liked to explore, with Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire all forming an unofficial “LA trilogy,” of sorts, with recurring themes and a shared setting.
The premise of Under the Silver Lake is concerned with a young woman’s disappearance, which prompts a young man to go looking for her, uncovering various difficult truths and bizarre things along the way. It’s almost hyper-Lynchian, but to its credit, it doesn’t just feel like a pastiche; more an attempt to build upon some of the things Lynch explored especially heavily in his last few films.
Under the Silver Lake
- Release Date
-
May 15, 2018
- Runtime
-
139 Minutes
1
‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (1999)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Standing as, surprisingly, an all-time great Christmas movie, Eyes Wide Shut is also noteworthy for being the final film Stanley Kubrick ever directed. There’s a dreamy quality to Eyes Wide Shut that shifts as things go along, with the more intense parts of the story here being much closer to a nightmare than a dream (the whole masked ball sequence is mortifying stuff).
Like some of David Lynch’s films, Eyes Wide Shut is also unafraid to get weird, explicit, and confronting, and it demonstrated that Kubrick never wavered from his distinctive style, even at the end of his filmmaking career. You can say the same about David Lynch, considering that his final major project, not counting short films, was Twin Peaks: The Return, which might well be the boldest and most Lynchian thing he ever made.
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