Truly Dreadful Film

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

I read many interesting interpretations on the tale of death and rebirth of Gods and I enjoyed the movie under this perspective. But I think there's more to Begotten than that.It is a nightmarish world were behaviors, habits and rituals have their own inner logic and the Gods or Humans in it (or the movie itself for that matter) are not obliged to explain to the viewers what's going on. All this repetition, the monotonous ambient music, the slow progression of events is at the service of arguing that this inner logic exists.The very credits of the film may focus solely on the first 15 minutes (God kills himself, Mother Earth fertilizes herself, Flesh on Bone is born), but in my humble opinion the "story" begins right after that. Because the "story" for me is: this is a bizarre world, it's full of violence and incomprehensible behaviors. (this is the truth for our world anyway. I don't think any external viewer of this world would make sense out of it, nor would they find it less violent if seen in a great scale, space-wise and time-wise)I particularly loved the direction of photography. It plays with space, perspective, contrast and forms very efficiently to create the landscapes and the rituals. In addition, the grainy effect works for the creation of a certain atmosphere. Most important, it is a solid piece of art, it works as a whole. I can't find a dissonance, something in the film, whether it be a scene or a choice in the "art" part, that doesn't match the rest.

After some deliberation I have decided that this film is not actually worth watching. Begotten is an early film by E. Elias Merhigne, who would later become known for the Shadow of the Vampire. Shadow of the Vampire is actually a brilliant film, not only thanks to Willem Dafoe's intense portrayal of Nosfereatu and John Malkovich's iconic portrayal of Murnau, but also thanks to I discovered this film on some sort of social media related to artistic horror cinema. Of course, artistic doesn't often mean good and the number of times artistic actually means pretentious is enough to make any cinephile uncomfortable. The Begotten is a film that has taken what the early David Lynch shorts had in terms of creepiness and stripped it of any sense of narrative or even cohesive form. Begotten instead replaces these essential elements of film with some vague, religious symbolism. However, unlike the films of Lynch and Jodorowsky, the religious imagery comes off as completely disingenuous. The shear length of the shots wreaks of pretension and an overly ambitious attempt at being "strange." All in all, this film tries way too hard and in so doing fails at either being disturbing or profound, when it sets out to be both. One can identify elements of Maya Deren, especially Meshes of the Afternoon, but still, the film fails to live up to its ambitions as a work of creepy art. Another film make that comes to mind who has done similar things is Crispin Glover with this What Is It? trilogy. However, even Glover's purposely shocking, pretentious Nazi Shirley Temple and Down syndrome sex imagery is superior to the half-assed attempt that Merhige made in Begotten. The sparseness of the soundtrack and the juxtaposition of nature sounds with a repetitive beating heart does invoke a creepy and even spiritual element. Still, I can't help but feeling that this is some charlatan ploy to evoke some primal fear in me and it doesn't quite work out for a hardcore genre fan. I must admit, I enjoyed moments of this film, but all in all I must say, this is a pretentious work that gives art cinema a bad name. Cinephiles must live not on convulsions alone. Begotten is a student film that doesn't nearly live up to the legacy of student films like Lynch's the Grandmother or Cronenberg's From the Drain. This review originally appeared at http://paranoidcinephilia.blogspot.com

No dialogue, horrific images, surreal atmosphere, experimental cinematography and a concept abstract and haunting. This film is not for everyone. I dare say only the very brave, very patient and very open will find some credit through this ordeal of twisted context.With the directors vague intentions centred around a God disembowelling himself, giving birth to Mother Earth through a brutally and graphic wonder of dark imagination; I believe this film will effect everyone differently.Whilst the atmosphere is beautifully presented through the various unnatural noises and surreal artistry of the intensely graphic nature of this film, the plot itself isn't important. What counts is the journey it puts you through and how you see that vision through your own ideals and impression.I myself found it to be a nihilistic wasteland, where the evolution of humanity is born and instantly based on justice (Mother Earth) and regulation (Son of Earth); where this is both repulsed and lusted after, shown through the dilemmas of the first of the flesh and their fascination to bend it their wills; only to find that time is omnipotent and constantly against their plight. (The Shots of the sun rising, and Moon falling) The Black & White imagery shows the shades of Gray which represents how fickle morality is and can only be seen one-sided by the first of us born. In the end nothing matters. Existence and struggle continues, yet purpose is worthless and tiring. All we need to know was presented to us cleverly through the opening phrases. It's a reflection to our modern ideologies. Is this what the director intended when he first set out to make this? Probably not.However, no films is without it's flaws, and this one suffered from a few too: Most of the shots linger for far too long to keep any attentive interest. The numerous repetition takes you away from the film to make any lasting impact. The extreme close-ups make it hard to manage what's going on. And sadly the mixture of all three means you will be checking your watch every now and then.Is it perfect? No. Is is a masterpiece? No. Do I hail it as one of the greatest films ever made? No. But for something different, something niche and for those with the patience, lead stomachs and flexibility to handle it; Enjoy it, you sick dog you.

This film is an attempt to shock the public and nothing else. It is not art at all,It is an idiotic desire of maker to collect all the taboo"s in one place, to give it a horrific note with weird picture and sounds, and off course that there will be high-blown hipsters in public who will claim that this is remarkable masterpiece of "art". Total loss of nerve. Go and die hipsters!! Today, all sorts of people think that they are some kind of artists, and always there is audience, no mather what kind of crap is on board. Only stupid people can watch it twice and seek for deeper meaning of it. Stupid, bad and ugly movie. That is enough about this peace of garbage, now i am writhing only to fill this lines, and that it is.