RIP David Lynch (1946-2025)

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

The popularity of Twin Peaks in the 90s was underrated. It was too complicated for me as a child but it definitively caused an impression. I was more familiar with X-Files and that show had a huge Twin Peaks influence in its visual style and mysterious storytelling. Also influenced other popular TV shows like Lost.

I'm less familiar with his movies. I need to correct that. RIP.

 

[miguk]

Link's Awakening.

That was the first, but really all Zelda games from then on were inspired by Lynch. Prior to Awakening, Hyrule was a land of mild-mannered and at times bland fantasy people. Personalities came down to little more than a single sentence. Then LA added some peculiar individuals that could have possibly lived in Twin Peaks. The change was popular enough that they used it as to mold for all citizens of Hyrule from then on. Had it not been for Twin Peaks being massively popular in Japan, who knows what the series would be like today?

 

[vitad00d]

His films may not have been for everyone, but nobody can deny that they were unique and interesting and creative - and especially in the current, desolate filmmaking landscape that quality is worth more than gold.

This resonates with me. Over the years, I've observed a lot of reflexive David Lynch hate, mostly because to a certain kind of person, he represents a "baby's first art movie"/entry level cinephile symbol. Basically, the inevitable backlash to his level of success and cultural penetration. But the guy undoubtedly was an iconoclast, who followed his extremely differentiated muses without unhealthy regard for shifts in public taste. And to make work that has the triumvirate achievement of being (1) artistically uncompromised; (2) personal, in the sense of representing original sensibilities; and (3) able to reach a mass audience––that, to me, is like the crown jewel achievement of a public facing artist, and he managed to pull it off. He'll be missed.

 

[miguk]

The popularity of Twin Peaks in the 90s was understated. It was a too complicated for me as a child but it definitively caused an impression. I was more familiar with X-Files and that show had a huge Twin Peaks influence in its visual style and mysterious storytelling. Also influenced other popular TV shows like Lost.

I'm less familiar with his movies. I need to correct that. RIP.

X-Files probably wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for the fact that Twin Peaks' cancellation left a hole that needed to be filled. (Granted, we could also credit John Constantine: Hellblazer, which predates Twin Peaks, but that was much less well known to the general TV viewing public.) And the fanbase for the series was even bigger in Japan, where the prequel film Fire Walk With Me was a big success, as apposed to the failure it was in the US.

For films, start with Blue Velvet, as that's a good beginner's Lynch film; it's low on his trademark surrealism, but still contains his basic style. After that, Twin Peaks itself (despite being a TV series) is a good medium difficulty intro to his more surreal stuff. I'd then watch Lost Highway to dive into the deep end. Go with whatever afterwards except for Dune, which might be his worst work.

 

[dropsmegamega]

RIP.

Legit hard to believe, I still had in my mind that one of these days he would announce a new film or something... It was his films that got me to start taking cinema more seriously and actually watch stuff outside of the typical blockbuster. He will definitely be missed. I'll probably rewatch his films and Twin Peaks this year...

 

[CardcaptorEd2019]

This makes me want to watch some more of his other works that I haven't seen yet. Eraserhead is a classic movie and Blue Velvet is also another incredible film of his. Twin Peaks is a show that has a special place in my memory

 

[Don Patch]

This sucks...

 

[Viviana Santos]

By far one of the best directors and screenwriters of all time, rest in peace legend.

Post automatically merged: Jan 16, 2025

Twin Peaks is by far my favorite work by David Lynch.

 

[sadgrrly]

Heard the news while I was out running errands. Absolutely heartbreaking loss of an incredible creative.

 

[themoon]

A truly special talent.

RIP, weirdo.

 

[Luci]

RIP David

Gonna play Mizzurna Falls, which English patch is considered the better one?

 

[Viviana Santos]

RIP David

Gonna play Mizzurna Falls, which English patch is considered the better one?

Owl/ResidentEvie Translation is way better than the Cirosan/nikita translation in my opinion.

 

[Luci]

Thanks

 

[Viviana Santos]

Thanks

This review goes more in depth about why the Cirosan/Nikita translation is bad: https://www.romhacking.net/reviews/6846/#review

 

[Parasite_Steve]

I don’t love everything he’s done but I deeply appreciate his body of work. A true original.

 

[Skeetos]

One of the greatest filmmakers to live. RIP the legend.

 

[Stookymalarkey]

Just watched Mulholland Drive. Great movie that threw me for a loop. If there was one word I'd use describe this genius, it's "Silencio".

 

[thecrow2313]

PlayStation 2: The Third Space

 

[Amag0k1]

PlayStation 2: The Third Space

Sad, as with out Twin peaks, we may not have gotten what silent hill was and silent hill 2. RIP!

 

[ZombieFish]

Damn. And here I am trying to grieve ON A FUCKING TELEPHONE… *switches to PC*

Irreplaceable legend. And I know even he hated it, but Dune was my first exposure, and I still love it unconditionally. Rest now, you beautiful bastard.

(Fun story: one time I had to be put under for a surgery, and while anesthetized I had weird lucid dreams(?), and the first thing I said after coming to was “Whoa, that was like a David Lynch film.” I then had to explain to the nurse who David Lynch was. I think having that reference point neutered the potential trauma, so thanks, Dave.)

 

[Bakuma1997]

Thanks a lot man, Your Films, be feauture lenght or shorts, will be remembered for generations, also without you, one of the greatrest Kid horror cartoons in existence wouldn't be as great as it was, thanks for everything and for making Gravity Falls possible, hope you can enjoy a pretty damn good coffee where you went madman, enjoy your Fridays

 

[Ian Naxieas]

Man, such bad news. Not a good way to start 2025 eh? I started with Eraserhead back in high school and I didn't know what the fuck to think. x) I wouldn't say that I liked it at the time, but I certainly remembered it and I learned to appreciate it on a rewatch. Twin Peaks followed. It started out kinda hokey and I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but it hooked me pretty quickly and I binged the rest of the series. Not seen the third season yet, but I need to. I still don't know how they're going to follow up the cliffhanger at the end of season two, especially since I know the third season takes place years after. Blue Velvet came next, loved it, still do. Same with Mulholland Drive. Tried to watch Dune many times but it never got it's claws into me. The rest I still need to watch. Rest in peace dude, you were one of the greats.

 

[Ikagura]

Even if I wasn't a big fan (especially with his weirder style) it's a tragedy in cinema.

I liked his Dune as much as he renounced it.

 

[Gorse]

While I can't claim to have been a major fan – I was born long after Twin Peaks ceased to be relevant – Lynch's Rabbits web series scared the absolute F out of me when I discovered it as a kid. If you've never seen it, it's like a bizarre dubbed-over children's program imported from another dimension... all the characters say things that are theoretically understandable, but make no sense in relation to one another. The show is creepy enough on its own, but when the really koo-koo stuff starts happening, your defences are already down, and it becomes truly nightmarish. Highly, highly recommend it... but maybe don't watch it in the dark.

Honestly, though, I really just liked ol' Lynchy-poo as a human being. He seemed like a really passionate, intelligent individual that was absolutely self-aware of how his work must have come off to other people. Rather than smugly condescend to them about the "right" meaning of his material, though, he encouraged their own interpretations and carefully fostered doubt and suspicion, which all the best mystery filmmakers do.

Despite making a bunch of weird stuff with vague overtones, I don't think anyone could ever call him "pretentious". The man was a regular cast member on The buggering Cleveland Show, for chrissakes – he clearly felt it was OK to not take this stuff too seriously, except when it deserved it.

I'll miss him. He was cool. He did seem a little out-of-place in a post-analog world, but keeping a few threads connected to the past isn't inherently a bad thing. It really sucks that I'll never get to hear about his next crazy project... it's such a sadness.

 

[vitad00d]

Rather than smugly condescend to them about the "right" meaning of his material, though, he encouraged their own interpretations and carefully fostered doubt and suspicion, which all the best mystery filmmakers do.

This "but what does it mean?" discourse really flared up around Mulholland Drive, and always seemed so absurd. David Lynch was a trained painter, and his first attempts at filmmaking were admitted attempts to make moving paintings. He made dramatically gripping movies with memorable characters––Frank Booth most notably––but that ethos of creating filmed paintings, (in other words, motion pictures) was always at the nucleus of what he was doing. Growing up means no more Santa Claus, nor any hard skeleton of truth that fictional work maps onto and over. "Canon" is making a small lie into a bigger one. David Lynch understood this, and was comfortable with it, which gave him a license to explore the domain of dreams, and things half-remembered––there is no realer and truer story behind the visible story of stuff like Eraserhead or Mulholland Drive, and it would have been weird if there were.