The filmmaker, who died this week, mixed the menacing with the everyday, the banal with the surreal and sublime.

David Lynch's unrelenting 1992 horror film, a prequel to his "Twin Peaks" series, aimed to kill "Twin Peaks," which had been a television sensation just two years earlier. "Fire Walk With Me" famously starts off with a shot of static on a television set,

Culture / Books & the Arts / In his films, his TV shows, and his paintings, Lynch reminded us that all art gestures toward a world beyond the familiar and comforting. . Erik Baker In trying to write on David Lynch one begins to understand why words did not come easily to him.

Blue Velvet ’s freaky Frank Booth huffing, well, whatever that stuff is, Lost Highway ’s spine-chilling Mystery Man, or Wild at Heart ’s Sailor kung fu-kicking in a snakeskin jacket—Lynch wasn’t trying to be controversial.