Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (2024)

No one knows better than David Lynch how to capture dreams so vividly, whether in TV or film projects, but some of his movies are better than others. All of his works, including his most down-to-Earth stories, have a distinctively hazy atmosphere — a touch of otherworldliness even in familiar scenarios. Lynch came into the spotlight with a series of weird, eerie short films until his debut feature, Eraserhead, was released independently, funded with his own money. The director remains one of the most important voices of underground cinema, achieving unique movie experiences with limited resources.

Lynch is a versatile figure in the film industry. Even with his unconventional style, he is a three-time Oscar nominee for Best Director Oscar. He's also the creator of the iconic TV show Twin Peaks and occasionally appears in front of the camera, as in the case of his unforgettable cameo as John Ford in The Fabelmans. Lynch hasn't made a movie since 2006, but his 10 feature films listed below, while varying in quality, make up an impeccable filmography.

Related: What If David Lynch Had Directed Return Of The Jedi?

10 Dune (1984)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (1)

The 1984 version of Dune is a major stain in David Lynch's career. The adaptation's biggest problem is in the attempt to cram all the events of Frank Herbert's lengthy and highly detailed book into a two-hour movie. The result is a movie overflowing with essential world-building — the sandworms, the Melange, and Arrakis's desolated landscapes are all there — yet it lacks a concise narrative.

In Lynch's Dune, Paul Artreides's journey feels more like a tour than a prophetical adventure. Characters come and go, and the audience barely has time to get to know them before they finish serving their purpose and leave. The movie's awful reception caused Lynch to disown his version of Dune. Still, there are a few aspects of his adaptation that are worth highlighting, such as the compelling feud between Kyle MacLachlan and Sting's characters, and Bob Ringwood's costume design.

9 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (2)

Since the spinoff prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is solely focused on the figure of Laura Palmer and the events that lead to her death, the story doesn't have the quirky drama of the TV show. Instead, it leans more on the horror elements that make Twin Peaks so unique.

Even though Laura Palmer is dead in the show, viewers are made to feel empathy toward her and the pain of losing her, and this is something that only grows stronger in the movie. The story told in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is an absolute nightmare that can only lead to one tragic ending. Unfortunately, despite it featuring a memorable David Bowie cameo, since it is made for a very specific audience familiar with the show, the movie is Lynch's most confined production in terms of accessibility.

8 Wild At Heart (1990)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (3)

With a critic score of 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, Wild at Heart seems to be David Lynch's most divisive movie, considered by many critics an uneven road trip of the senses. On the other hand, the movie won the prestigious Palme d'Or, the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, which guarantees its winners a spot in movie history.

Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern co-star in the story about two unpredictable lovers on the run, with a series of bizarre enemies at their heels. Wild at Heart is overly violent and crude, with exaggerated performances that pass along the feeling that every character is at the edge of madness. It's an unpredictable ride from beginning to end.

7 Lost Highway (1997)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (4)

Lost Highway is an underrated David Lynch movie, with chilling metaphors for desire and the loss of identity. It revolves around a doomed musician who goes through a mysterious transformation after getting a death sentence for a murder he may or may not have committed.

Lynch offers no instructions or directions to understand the mystery of Lost Highway, making the audience feel precisely like the puzzling main character when he realizes he might not be who he thinks he is. The whole narrative is driven by disorientation, and the presence of the Mystery Man, one of Lynch's most puzzling antagonists, is guaranteed to bump up the tension.

Related: Every David Lynch Movie Ranked By Rewatchability

6 The Straight Story (1999)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (5)

It's difficult not to love The Straight Story, which follows the heartwarming journey of an old man determined to drive cross-country on his lawnmower just to make things right with his dying brother. David Lynch steps out of his comfort zone to deliver a happy-go-lucky story. The movie is a sweet and honest meditation on the burden of aging and the urge to do something beautiful in the world before it's too late.

Given that Lynch has established himself as a talented surrealist director, especially after Mulholland Drive's release one year later, a movie like The Straight Story unintentionally falls into oblivion. With his fame centered around themes of despair and confusion, this outlier in his filmography has become Lynch's most obscure and overlooked movie in subsequent years.

5 Inland Empire (2006)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (6)

It's difficult to think of a better movie for David Lynch to end his feature film output on than Inland Empire. It has all the special trademarks that make him so unique: there are plenty of terrifying elements in the background of the main storyline, it delivers a mesmerizing Laura Dern performance, it's pure nightmare fuel, and of course, the audience shouldn't even try to understand Inland Empire's ending.

While Lynch is popular for successfully capturing a dreamlike atmosphere in his movies, this one isn't even slightly tender — from beginning to end Dern's character goes through the hell inside her mind, a part of her subconscious no one should ever have access to. The plot quickly loses itself in its own nightmare: initially, what unfolds is the story of a passionate actress who joins the set of a cursed unfinished project and falls for the wrong man. As the story progresses, every possible narrative structure is abruptly demolished, leaving only a series of distressing imagery and a woman who must choose between her talent and her sanity.

Available To Stream On Prime Video
Available To Buy/Rent On Amazon

Related: 10 Darkest Scenes From David Lynch Movies

4 Eraserhead (1977)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (7)

Eraserhead is a cinematic phenomenon that only occurs a few times a decade: the absolute outburst of creativity of an artist who refuses to comply with reality. Working on a minimum budget and limited settings, David Lynch accomplishes what is his weirdest movie, an erratic tale about fatherhood in the face of a dying world.

Eraserhead and its characters are grotesque, yet there's a certain familiarity to the plot that keeps the audience engrossed. Everyone in the movie looks anxious, the places look all the same, and at the center of it all, a father contemplates the horror of bringing a child to the repulsive modern world.

3 The Elephant Man (1980)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (8)

David Lynch brings a genuine sensibility to the shocking true story of Joseph Merrick, a severely disfigured man dismissed as a side-show freak and his attempts to fit into a society that rejects him repeatedly. Lynch hits the nail on the head by treating the story with sincere simplicity instead of falling for a conventional, melodramatic approach that would only harm Merrick's image more. To Merrick, indifference is gold: all he wants is to be seen as just another face in the crowd.

The Elephant Man is David Lynch's highest-rated movie, and it earned 8 Oscar nominations, including one for Best Director. There's patience to the drama as Lynch explores how Merrick interacts with the world around him, instead of resorting to non-stop suffering. Of course, his story is sad and powerfully emotional, but Lynch isn't looking for the emotional impact only: when Merrick is at his most vulnerable form, he wants the audience to be in his shoes.

Related: Top 10 David Lynch Villains

2 Blue Velvet (1986)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (9)

Blue Velvet opens with a sequence consisting of a beautiful garden of roses, kids happily walking to school, and a sunny day, just to suddenly cut to tragedy: death and dirt. In a few seconds, David Lynch establishes Blue Velvet's atmosphere and delivers the movie's main message: behind a sweet, beautiful facade lies a disturbing reality.

In the movie, the discovery of a severed ear in a remote field leads a young man to a beautiful nightclub singer involved in a chilling conspiracy. Blue Velvet is David Lynch's psychosexual masterpiece, a distressing suburban satire with neo-noir elements. It introduces characters who are beyond salvation, stuck in an endless cycle of dangerous desire.

1 Mulholland Drive (2001)

Every David Lynch Movie Ranked Worst To Best (10)

Mulholland Drive precisely captures how David Lynch feels about the decaying state of Hollywood and the American Dream, initially introducing L.A. as a warm land that welcomes anyone fortunate enough to embrace stardom. That's the first half of the movie. The second follows the same characters in a desperate state, their dreams shattered, and a longing for things that will never happen. In other words, the reality.

To illustrate this harrowing Hollywood scenario, Lynch introduces Betty, a charismatic young woman who moves to L.A. to become a movie star, and Rita, who lost her memory after a mysterious car accident. The two meet by chance and engage in a thrilling journey of self-discovery, gradually blending themselves into one single person. Full of David Lynch's trademarks, Mulholland Drive is the director's masterpiece, a puzzling mosaic of dreams put at stake that fully commits to a seemingly impossible challenge: filming the subconscious.

More: Mulholland Drive Ending Explained