15 Canadian things America should trade for to form a pop culture super team

14. David Lynch for David Cronenberg

For this trade, perhaps we should wait until the Twin Peaks revival has run its course. Still, if you love the surreal work of Twin Peaks creator David Lynch, then you’ll surely lose your mind over the strange but beautiful work of Canadian director David Cronenberg.

David Lynch, born in Missoula, Montana, has been called the “first popular Surrealist” by film critic Pauline Kael. That alone is a serious accomplishment, given that surrealism is so utterly strange that some people feel threatened by it. Still, many of Lynch’s works have become part of American culture. This includes 1977’s incredibly strange film Eraserhead, The Elephant Man (1980) and, of course, the incredibly popular Twin Peaks television series. Twin Peaks at first ran only from 1990-1991. However, it’s become so beloved over the years that we’re now enjoying its revival.

Canadian director David Cronenberg’s visceral horror draws some strong parallels with Lynch’s films. Cronenberg (who is yet another Canadian on this list to be honored with the Order of Canada) is one of the originators of the “body horror” genre.

Characters in Cronenberg’s movies undergo strange and frightening transitions. His 1986 adaptation of The Fly stars Jeff Goldblum in one of his best roles, as the beleaguered scientist Seth Brundle. In short, Goldblum’s character inadvertently transforms himself into a human-fly hybrid. Audience members watch his slow, strange, and agonizing transformation into a truly terrifying monster.

Cronenberg has since moved beyond the horror genre, however. He’s also directed broader work that still maintain a kind of fascinated horror with the human body and our tendency towards violence. Hence A History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007), both starring Viggo Mortensen in some seriously bloody roles.