Begotten (1991)
September 10th 2010 01:51
In the vast world of film making, there are many people who try to change
the way we make movies. Well, the human race has been making movie for over a hundred years, so there's really no reason not to play it safe and make a conventional film, but some folks just gotta mess around with the formula. This is where we get films like “Begotten” which some think are ingenious, and other think are a colossal waste of time.
Where does one even start with a movie like Begotten? I mean, it's hard to even explain what the movie is like because it's so entirely unconventional. Firstly, there's no dialogue and no music of any kind. It's almost accurate to say there's no sound effects, since most of the movie's audio is a murky mess of crickets and muffled groans, with a few sloshing and gurgling sounds when appropriate. The movie is shot in a bizarre bi-tone style, that is there is no shades of gray only sharp blacks and whites. Keep in mind this isn't a five minute film school project, it's an hour and twelve minutes of this mostly silent, indistinguishable jumble of film making.
The official press on the movie says it's a “Deeply Religious” tale, but being an observant Christian I see almost nothing about this movie that resembles anything close to any region I'm familiar with. The press also calls the character the movie opens with “God” but from what we see it's only a guy bound in a chair in a rundown shack who winds up getting loose and gutting himself with a strait razor. Other than the credits calling this guy “God” nothing to me really indicates he's anything but a crazy guy tied up in a shack. Later, a woman referred to in the credits again as “Mother of Earth” comes along and impregnates herself with the corpse (As graphically as possible, the less said about this the better) and she wanders off into a wasteland and gives birth to a fully grown, deformed guy who then is capture and tortured by some weird guys without faces.
People talk about how profound and moving this movie is, I just though it was gross. If this movie were ten minutes long, it probably would have been profound but as a full length feature it's half boring and half tedious. Director E Elias Merhinge went on to direct music videos for Marilyn Manson (a fitting job for this weirdo) he then decided to do more conventional film making with“Shadow of the Vampire” which all in all was a success.
For better or for worse, Begotten has made it's mark as a controversial cult classic. While I don't agree that it's “profound” I will say that the director deserves kudos for trying something new. It's a film curiosity that you can't compare anything else, and love it or hate it, that's a good thing.
Slipknot Called, they want their look back
The official press on the movie says it's a “Deeply Religious” tale, but being an observant Christian I see almost nothing about this movie that resembles anything close to any region I'm familiar with. The press also calls the character the movie opens with “God” but from what we see it's only a guy bound in a chair in a rundown shack who winds up getting loose and gutting himself with a strait razor. Other than the credits calling this guy “God” nothing to me really indicates he's anything but a crazy guy tied up in a shack. Later, a woman referred to in the credits again as “Mother of Earth” comes along and impregnates herself with the corpse (As graphically as possible, the less said about this the better) and she wanders off into a wasteland and gives birth to a fully grown, deformed guy who then is capture and tortured by some weird guys without faces.
For better or for worse, Begotten has made it's mark as a controversial cult classic. While I don't agree that it's “profound” I will say that the director deserves kudos for trying something new. It's a film curiosity that you can't compare anything else, and love it or hate it, that's a good thing.
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Here's my review
Comment by Joshua the Samurai
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