London, 1884. In a carnival freak show, intrigued surgeon Frederick Treves discovers a man presented as the Elephant Man. It’s actually John Merrick, a man afflicted by a deforming disease, and exploited by a man named Bytes.

After the sensational and poignant Eraserhead, David Lynch is contacted by Mel Brooks to direct an adaptation of the life of John Merrick. With Freddie Francis’s superb photography and the influence of expressionist cinema and Tod Browning’s freaks, Elephant Man imposes Lynch as the king of the bizarre, a title he will retain throughout all of his career, up until today with the recent release of the new season of Twin Peaks.