You Got Your Werner Herzog in My David Lynch

On top of “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done” being inspired by a true story, the words “inspired by a true story” actually turn up in the opening credits. Of course, they also mention David Lynch as an executive producer and Werner Herzog as a co-writer and director, so it doesn’t matter how real the story is – with these two onboard, even reality has its own anarchistic spin, one that’s more about imagination and style than the facts themselves. This is what the nightly news might look like in the hands of Salvador Dalí.

The homicide at the film’s center involves Brad McCullum (Michael Shannon), who picked up a sword and attacked his mother (Grace Zabriskie) with it. When Detective Hank Havenhurst (William Dafoe) shows up to look at the aftermath, he gets word that the guy responsible is with hostages at a house nearby, and that he’s willing to trade them for a car to get to Mexico. Hank hopes Brad’s fiancée Ingrid (Chloë Sevigny) or the director (Udo Kier) of a Greek tragedy he’s been rehearsing for can get through to him, but all they can do is tell Hank about the warning signs that led to this.

They both agree that Brad was pretty much normal until his trip to Peru, where his buddies went kayaking and wound up drowning. Everybody noticed something different about him when he came back, but things really got out of hand at rehearsals for the play, where he portrays a tragic hero who has his mother’s blood on his hands. The fact that he uses a sword to kill her isn’t even the most awful part: The sword Brad picked for the play is the same one he murdered his real-life mother with.

Herzog and Lynch use Brad as the fulcrum for the whole thing, and Shannon’s performance gives him so much presence that it stirs up tension even when he’s not onscreen. Dafoe, Kier, Sevigny and Zabriskie all hit the right notes too, and they provide the film with the humanity it needs, but they remember they’re there to help tell Brad’s story.

Then again, it’s really Herzog and Lynch’s story, and not even the gravity of the real world can hold down their imaginations. (That might explain why the film is so different from what really happened.) It didn’t get much of an audience when it had its theatrical run, but it’s sure to find a better one now that it’s on DVD. Do you suppose a title as long as this will fit in a Netflix queue?

This article originally appeared on AllMediaNY.com