"An Absurd Encounter With Fear" is a 1967 short (2 minute) film by a 21 year old David Lynch, "starring" Jack Fisk and Peggy Lynch. It is an experimental film, and due to its short length and low production values, it is unclear what is going on here. But it certainly manages to set an atmosphere.

A man (Fisk) approaches a woman (Lynch) across a field. When he reaches her, we see that she is in what seems to be a catatonic state. The man then proceeds to start unzipping his pants---and pulling out bouquets of flowers. After doing this for about a quarter of the film's length, he falls down, seemingly dead. The film then ends.

It is also scored with screeching classical music, and has a weird color balance, as well as being shot on poor quality film. It is unclear to me whether the visual style is an artistic choice, or just the result of a 21 year old film student in 1967 not having a lot of resources.

This film might be seen as just an art student noodling. And in fact, in its title, it claims as much: that this story is absurd and doesn't make a lot of sense is right there in the title. Especially compared to what Lynch would do later, this movie might not seem like much. But, on the other hand, I showed it to someone and she told me that afterwards she had to sleep with a nightlight for three days. With no dialogue, very little action, and very little technical resources, a young David Lynch was able to quickly set a mood to put the viewer in a world slightly different than normal. What is being encountered and why is not clear, but something is being done here.