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Arguably the most underrated of all David Lynch’s work – except for maybe his latest, INLAND EMPIRE – Lost Highway continues to stupefy. It’s not just that the movie is cryptic and hard to analyze (one could argue that those two monikers are what David Lynch hangs his hat on as a filmmaker), it’s loopy and really quite scary: It gets under your skin.

While films like Mulholland Drive deal with libidinous xenophobia in a obtuse and often hyper-reflexive way, Lost Highway, it seems, is a movie about male sexual underperformance. The film opens with a series of strange events. The first thing that really makes sense is that when protagonist Bill Pullman sleeps with his wife (Patricia Arquette), he ‘finishes early’ and in an unsettling fashion Patricia pats him on the back, quietly whispering, “It’s okay…..it’s okay….” in a tantric repetition that disquiets, to say the least.

And then the film spirals into a vortex of weird. There’s Robert Loggia as an over-the-top gangster type, Richard Pryor shows up as a mechanic about half-way through the movie, and Robert Blake has a fantastic cameo as a strange visitor with no eyebrows who has bizarrely acute ESP. Then there’s always the film’s middle point, where Bill Pullman’s character turns into Balthazar Getty while in a prison cell. Yes, synopsizing this monster is not a particularly illuminating activity.

But what’s so invigorating about Lost Highway is its muddy prickliness. Who cares what’s actually happening? The fact that Lynch is able to infuse the picture with such a scary, almost terminal sexuality while keeping the startling imagery coming makes it a kind of a haunted house of amorous delinquency. And yes, there is a ton of sex: Patricia Arquette is in her birthday suit more than once, and everyone from Balthazar to co-star Gary Busey goes from zero to sex-crazed at least once.

The film is not as easily approachable as some of Lynch’s other material, but in hindsight it makes for a great precipice: After this film, Lynch would venture into G-rated territory, then would dive head-first into the brine of his own silt-filled consciousness, trying to mine intriguing imagery from any idea he could find. Mulholland Drive and INLAND EMPIRE may have more labyrinthine and astounding narrative switcheroos, but no Lynch fan should ignore Lost Highway: It’s a doozie.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Lynch devotees have been waiting for Lost Highway on DVD for the better part of a decade, and this initial result is…. eh. The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this disc is by no means definitive, and while it’s nice to see the film in any capacity whatsoever on DVD, it’s a pain in the ass to have it look like this. The biggest casualty is color accuracy: flesh tones are waaaay off, and the film’s lovely usage of deep, saturated tones is left appearing overly boosted in a way that doesn’t feel in service to the artistic intent. Fine detail quality is all right, but even with relative clarity, Lost Highway doesn’t look like it should on this DVD edition.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix here is a bit better than the video. Though again, it ain’t the real deal. The Region 2 release of the film I’ve had for years had a rockin’ DTS track on it, and while there is a legitimate heft to the sound mix on this disc, it doesn’t compare (especially in terms of the .1 LFE channel exploitation). Dialogue sounds fairly nice, though, and the movie’s exceptional score (by Angelo Badalamenti and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor) comes through with pizzazz. More could have been done here, to be sure, but I suppose we’ll have to take what we can get.

English, French and Spanish subtitles as well as English Closed Captions are included.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

None (boooooooo!).

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.