You can’t blame a person for expecting David Lynch to be a scary guy.

Beginning with 1977’s nightmarish Eraserhead, the 60-year-old writer-director has created the most unsettling screen images since Alfred Hitchcock. A severed ear in Blue Velvet, a ruptured head in Wild at Heart, a homecoming queen’s cadaver in Twin Peaks – Lynch’s films revel in the side of life we’ve been taught to look away from. One of Lynch’s most experimental films, the nearly three-hour INLAND EMPIRE (yes, in capitals), starring Laura Dern, opens later this year. In a move that few directors would dare, Lynch shot INLAND EMPIRE without an advance script, writing each scene day-by-day and shooting it all on digital video.