Blue Velvet (1986)

Blue Velvet rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.7/10· 235K votes

Rotten Tomatoes91%

Metacritic75%

TMDb7.609/10· 4K votes

With 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.7/10 on IMDb and 75/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About Blue Velvet

The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.

Cast of Blue Velvet

• 

  Isabella Rossellini

  as Dorothy Vallens

• 

  Kyle MacLachlan

  as Jeffrey Beaumont

• 

  Dennis Hopper

  as Frank Booth

• 

  Laura Dern

  as Sandy Williams

• 

  Hope Lange

  as Mrs. Williams

• 

  Dean Stockwell

  as Ben

• 

  George Dickerson

  as Detective Williams

• 

  Priscilla Pointer

  as Mrs. Beaumont

• 

  Frances Bay

  as Aunt Barbara

• J

  Jack Harvey

  as Mr. Beaumont

• 

  Ken Stovitz

  as Mike

• 

  Brad Dourif

  as Raymond

Blue Velvet facts

Budget

$6M

Box office

$8.6M

Our take on Blue Velvet

David Lynch's 1986 crime mystery opens with a severed ear found in a field, pulling a curious young man into an investigation that circles a mysterious nightclub singer and the psychopathic criminals holding her child. It's a thriller that trades procedural logic for dread, mood and the rot Lynch senses beneath tidy small-town surfaces. Expect unsettling imagery, an uneasy erotic charge and long stretches of pure atmosphere rather than tight plotting. This suits viewers drawn to art-house horror-adjacent cinema and directors who prize the uncanny over the comfortable. If you like your mysteries strange, disturbing and slow to reveal their meaning, Lynch's vision rewards patience.