The king of all things cinematically surreal has turned his beyond-cult following into a second act spent spreading the good word and essence brought forth by transcendental meditation. Of course, there are the overall positive vibes routinely ingrained within his now-daily weather reports as well.
But make no mistake about it: when it comes to crafting a hold-on-to-your-seats, absolutely-haywire narrative villain, David Lynch is unparalleled. Allow these great examples to suffice as the crème de la crème of "The Renaissance Man's" flair for creating characters that exemplify evil incarnate.
Bobby Peru
What's most sinister about Willem Dafoe's underrated Wild at Heart villain is that he somehow travels beyond the viciousness oozing out of his broken, dirtied teeth with a threatful demeanor the actor would tap into yet again as The Green Goblin a decade later.
Though Dafoe's style has oft lent itself well to assuming antagonistic roles, Bobby Peru stands out among the rest because of his ability to terrorize on the mere implication of what he's capable of.
Marietta Fortune
Dafoe is only surpassed in the off-the-rails Wizard of Oz and Elvis filmography pastiche by Diane Ladd as the amoral-and-corrupted, wicked witch-reminiscent mother of Lula - played by her real-life daughter, Laura Dern.
As the over-the-top, rage-dominated master-manipulator, Marietta will stop at nothing to destroy the marriage of Lula to bad boy Sailor (Nicolas Cage) by way of hiring a slew of weirdo hitmen to take the latter out.
Jean Renault
By far the most fascinating and developed of the three (or four, at this point?) Renault brothers, the French-accented drug-runner (Michael Parks, Kill Bill, Red State) memorably shakes up the infrastructure of One-Eyed Jacks, an across-the-Canadian-border casino/brothel in Twin Peaks.
Fans of the original run may have been disappointed that executives forced Lynch to wrap up the Laura Palmer murder mystery earlier than he would have liked. But they could quickly bask in the sheer entertainment brought upon by what immediately came next: the vengeance-seeking Renault's fast play for Special Agent Cooper-turned-FlannelCoop's badge and more.
Bum
If a picture says a thousand words, then a scene can haunt a million nightmares.
Credited as "Bum" and unofficially known in some Internet circles as "Mudman," the homeless man and/or creature-of-the-night existing across both dreams in reality in Mulholland Drive was actually played by a woman - Bonnie Aarons, also known for her role as Baroness Joy von Troken in The Princess Diaries films.
Mr. Eddy
As Lynch remembered in his 2018 memoir "Room to Dream," Robert Loggia famously earned the role of the road rage-prone mobster in Lost Highway based on an outburst a decade prior to the film's conception.
Inspired by the actor's explosive frustration upon learning the Blue Velvet role he showed up to audition for had already been cast, Lynch knew Loggia was just the man for a similar part in an even more warped mystery/thriller.
Baron Vladimir Harokonnen
Stellan Skarsgård (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) is bound to deliver the goods in the malevolence department upon the much-anticipated release of Denis Villeneuve's Dune. But nothing will compare to Kenneth McMillan's controversial, facial prosthetic-heavy turn in Lynch's then-failure/now cult-beloved 1984 edition.
As the planetary governor within the franchise, Harokonnen wields his power with the most abusive of hammers - and in especially hard-on-the-eyes ways still extensively recalled as arguably misguided, but nevertheless discussion-generating social commentary to this day.
Taunters
Without the vitriol of the public, both the real-life and cinematic recreation of John Merrick (John Hurt) could have lived a happier life. Thus qualifying those who dared to violently judge the man as villains worthy of ranking alongside other deplorable Lynch baddies.
Though the film told the inspirational true story of a doctor (Anthony Hopkins) who sought to help Merrick, there is no escaping the film's honest depiction of how low man can sink in belittling what they cannot understand.
The Mystery Man
"I'm in your house." The ghostly-pale videographer of worst nightmares-come-to-life in Lost Highway was notably played by Robert Blake in what would turn out to be his final role before standing trial, earning acquittal, then being found liable in civil court for the wrongful death of his wife.
A noteworthy fact, considering the film itself features a lead who temporarily disassociates after being accused of and convicted of the very same.
Frank Booth
1986 was the year of Dennis Hopper. Earning an Oscar nomination for his supporting turn as a town drunk-turned-assistant basketball coach in Hoosiers, Hopper was perhaps even more deserving of a victory in what turned out to be an all-time snub.
Somehow, he only earned a Golden Globe nomination for his efforts as the sadistic, helmetless, and more personality-filled Darth Vaderian madman running the underworld beneath Blue Velvet's idyllic vision of suburbia.
Bob
"Coop! What happened to Josie?" Representing the evil that men do in a world where a beast of eventually-revealed atomic proportions could invade men with parasitic precision, Bob trumps all.
A menace that is downright terrifying to even fathom, the true culprit behind much of the murderous madness befalling the previously-felt wholesome town of Twin Peaks is so slick at what he does that his villainry embedded itself within scenes before Lynch even created him.