I was born into the world of David Lynch and in a way I mean that literally. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, the metropolis where Lynch lived and worked, and felt inspired by local artists and the city's patina and grunge. While my mother was still recovering from my birth in the hospital, she watched the episode of Twin Peaks where - spoiler alertI guess? - Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) places the dead body of Maddie Ferguson (Sheryl Lee) in a golf bag, horrifying all the nurses who enter the room at inopportune moments. (DVR and on-demand didn't exist then, as she reminded me in the 1990s; she there was wish I watched it when it aired!) All of this is to say that, for the past 30 years or so, I've grown up in a world where Lynch—a director and visionary who died on January 16, 2025—has always been part of the conversation.

This probably makes it all the more surprising that I didn't watch Mulholland Drive for the first time until I was 30, fulfilling a New Year's resolution by pulling out cards from Cinephile deck and watching a movie with the actor on said card every week. For Naomi Watts, I went with "Mulholland Drive," the movie on the card—and soon after the movie started, I had to turn it off and come back to it two days later because the dinner scene upset me so much I needed a break.

In case you're not familiar, here's the gist: Towards the beginning of Mulholland Drive, A man named Dan (Patrick Fischler) tells his dining companion that he's having disturbing dreams ... specifically about a terrifying-looking person lurking behind Winkie's Diner. Lo and behold, that terrifying looking person is behind the restaurant at that very momentat that moment, Dan collapses, and I almost collapsed too. This is the best jump scare in cinematic history, and we can thank Lynch for making us all nervous about it. Now that Lynch is no longer with us, the world will be a little less strange going forward.

No one but David Lynch knows that true the significance of the human being behind Winkie's Diner - people have offered interpretations over time, saying it represents the dark subconscious of Diane Selwyn (Naomi Watts) and her eventual undoing in the film - but actress Bonnie Aarons, who portrayed the strange mud - monster, he declared Vulture in 2014, filming the scene was almost as scary as watching it. Apparently, Aarons met Lynch at a Twin Peaks party and her startling green eyes caught his eye—much like the time Frank Silva's unsettling looks led to Lynch casting Twin Peaks' prop master as the Big Bad from the series, "BOB". - at which point he asked Aaron to play Dan's nightmare figure.

Asked whether or not she had received specific information about her character, Aarons told interviewer Kenny Herzog that no one told her much before filming before slapping a pile of real moss on her body (while, per Lynch's instructions, she made sure her eyes were clear visible ). Aarons also said that while filming the image used in the film, she looked directly at Lynch, lending something particularly special to the scene... and she discovered she had no idea how terrifying that moment would actually be. "When I saw the movie with the cast and crew, I really scared myself," Aarons admitted. "The stories I've heard are so outrageous."

That's what Lynch said her what did the character mean? No. "He says, 'Not yet,'" Aaron told Herzog when asked if Lynch ever revealed what he thought the character meant. "He tells me, 'Everything.' "But he wouldn't tell me." Classic Lynch.

I'll be honest. I get quite a lot everyone of "Mulholland Drive" — a movie that a guy in one of my college film classes once called "Mulholland Doctor" after catastrophically misreading "Dr. in the title - being disturbing at best and terrifying at worst, which is exactly why I love it. The film challenges me every time I steel myself to put it on again, and I know I'm not alone in that; give YouTube a cursory search and you'll find a tone of long, intense video essays that break down various scenes, motifs, and meanings found in the film. (Regarding Winky's scene, Spikim movies has a particularly great platform breakdown.)

Just as a quick refresher, aside from Dan and his edible monster, Mulholland Drive centers on a woman named Betty (Naomi Watts). who arrives in Los Angeles with big dreams of becoming an actor, only to encounter an amnesiac named Rita (Laura Haring) who has recently survived a catastrophic car accident on Los Angeles' famous Mulholland Drive. The two women then experience a change of identity part way through the film when Watts' Diane Selwyn wakes up in the apartment she lived in "as Betty" - after opening a mysterious blue box - and is reacquainted with Rita as Camilla Rhodes, a rival actress. , and as the two walk into Club Silencio together, you'll probably feel it indeed confused (unless you were once somehow told, by David Lynch himself, what all this really means). That's not a bad thing. Great art inspires questions and research, and Mulholland Drive is a masterpiece specifically because it's weird, creepy and disturbing. The world may have lost Lynch, but his work will live on - and annoy people - forever.

Mulholland Drive is available to rent or purchase on major streaming platforms.