"I hope that I never see that face, ever, outside of a dream."
Mulholland Dr. might be one of David Lynch's tamest works, yet it's no less frightening than some of his works before or since. This film in particular is rich in Scenery Dissonance, Paranoia Fuel and Nothing Is Scarier and overall serves as a disturbing look behind the closed doors of Hollywood's troubled lives.
- The infamous "man behind Winkie's" scene featuring two guys, a diner, and something resembling a zombie hobo out back.
- More specifically, two guys meet at a diner and the other one recalls the dream he had last night: being able to see through the walls and seeing a horrible-looking man out in the back. They go see it and while it initially seems like there's nothing out of the ordinary, the creature actually appears and is enough to give the poor man a heart attack.
- What makes it so disturbing is that unlike your typical Jump Scare, the....creature doesn't actually jump out at the guys, but instead sort of slides outwards with unnatural fluidity, as if it's moving on rollers or if it's dragged like a curtain. It sounds ludicrous out of context, but it is absolutely not.
- How about the rumbling sound it makes when it slides out the alleyway? It's unnaturally loud and abrupt and resembles something like a car braking on gravelly road, an ice skater slowing down their momentum or a sudden thunderstorm.
- Now flash-forward 16 years from Mulholland and compare that creature to the Woodsmen.
- Sierra Bonita. This is when the film takes a much darker turn, as Betty and Rita investigate the apartment of Diane Selwyn, looking for answers regarding Rita's true identity. Do they find anything? Yes: Diane's decaying corpse in a bed. The semi close-up of her disfigured face is frightening to look at.
- The neighbor's knocking on the door somehow makes it worse because it breaks the silence and the initial shock of Betty, Rita and the audience itself.
- The music in this part is unbearably intense and disturbing and it ramps up considerably upon the initial discovery of the corpse.
- The Cowboy. He is basically this movie's counterpart to The Mystery Man in Lost Highway, which is emphasized by the fact that both lack eyebrows.
- He is an ominous figure whose mere presence has a hint of something ominous and foreboding.
- How about when Adam is instructed to meet the cowboy? He meets him in a desolate ranch in the middle of a night. The cowboy then appears slowly out of nowhere which is accompanied by a flickering light. He then instructs Adam to do as he is told or he will die.
- Later, the cowboy goes into Diane's apartment and "wakes her up" despite Diane being a decomposing body. The scene then transitions into Diane waking up for real as a living human.
- Irene and her companion. Despite initially coming across as a lovely elderly couple who wish Betty luck at the beginning of the film, we later cut back to them quietly traveling in a limousine with ghastly smiles plastered on their faces. In their next appearance they proceed to torment a hysterical Diane until she shoots herself.
- The couple is actually miniature-sized when they enter Diane's apartment under the doorway and then haunt her all the way to her bedroom in what can be considered a guilt-ridden hallucination. And this is where the movie ends!
- Llorando
. What starts as an ominous stage performance gradually shifts into a Tear Jerker, and somehow becomes more terrifying the longer it goes on. The film goes straight into Mind Screw territory just after.
