Why is it that an international pandemic has caused David Lynch, arguably the most revered and elusive cult filmmaker our generation has seen, to start leaking his own work like an impatient popstar with a rabid online stanbase? Perhaps we’ll never know, but what we are sure of is that we’re grateful for his DGAF digital pivot.
Yep, having taken part in online Q&As with meditation experts, re-released an old web series from his back catalogue, and uploading clips of him doing DIY to his YouTube channel, David Lynch has once again fed the girls with the release of a near-decade old, one minute long short horror film.
The film, titled The 3Rs, was originally conceived as a trailer for the Vienna Film Festival back in 2011. Shot entirely in black-and-white, it’s a truly messed up, DIY short film that depicts a bug-eyed older gentleman called Pete. In the film, he’s shown holding stones, as a woman narrator states: “Pete has how many rocks?” as two women chalk up an estimate on a board bearing the same question. It’s shaky and disorienting, soundtracked by the sound of flies. There are scenes in which a rubber duck is decapitated, and of Pete thrashing the ground as it squeals back. All in all, a rather twisted and unpleasant experience, which is the kind of thing David Lynch is so good at.
Perhaps this, like his multitude of DIY videos and revived weather reports, is a natural reaction to Lynch’s inability to create on a grander scale in lockdown. While we wait for his next project to materialise (there is nothing on the slate at present), all we can do is sit back and watch the legend given us a deeper insight into his hard-to-come-by back catalogue.