Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

lokhandes I watched this movie only because many websites say its the most disturbing movie...!! i don't think so..... at first movie is really hard to understand because its black and white representation also no dialogue or kind of subtitles.the movie is about the god , mother earth , and a flesh on bone. you can get a little idea of movie when it actually end and cast name appear on screen for me its not even disturbing or sick but not even good movie to watch. if i have to choose between 'A serbian film' or begotten i will always choose 'serbian film'.

Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) Begotten is one of those movies that's aimed at a very specific audience. It's not for people who are easily offended, or even mildly so. It's not for people who prefer easy-to-follow plots or who prefer clear, crisp cinematography. It's really for people who relish weird movies, particularly ones that Mean Something, the better to analyze endlessly. Me, I don't care so much for the over-analyzing bit, but I do like me some weirdness. And boy, does Begotten get weird. And gory.Reasons you might not like this movie, reader: 1) It's in black and white. (I know!) 2) It has no dialogue. 3) It looks like it was shot on Super 8mm film, transferred to Betamax, copied over to cave drawings, and then digitally recorded. What I mean to say is that grainy is a word that applies here. It's kind of like the old days, when one might get a partial signal for a TV channel to which one had not subscribed. Except at no point is the signal clear in Begotten. Where was I? Oh, yeah. 4) Its religious undertones are overtones, and they're not exactly reverential. 5) There's plenty of blood and other fluids.Now those of you who, according to the above paragraph, not like this movie should stop reading now. Are they gone? Okay, rest of you. Here's the basic plot. There are no twists – the appeal is visual, believe it or not – because there's almost no story. It begins with God killing himself through disembowelment, which somehow causes Mother Earth to be born, and then a few minutes later she gives birth to a fully formed Son of God, who's really nothing more than a shaking skeleton with some skin on him, and then they're beset by faceless cannibals, and then things get weird.If you do watch Begotten, be sure to cleanse yourself with some wholesome Yo Gabba Gabba afterward.

daretostruggledaretowin 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

chocolateshotgun101 It's difficult to explain what Begotten's about. It's better to be direct and say what this film is. So, Begotten is a collection of stretched out scenes with no dialogue, ambient sounds and indecipherable cinematography. To give credit where credit is due, the beginning scene is pretty good. While it may still be a bit too long, it's creepy and pretty disturbing enough for it to be a pretty good and memorable scene. Unfortunately, it's mostly downhill from here. The rest of the film is indecipherable and boring garbage that felt way too long (ironic since the film's actually quite short).Even if the Begotten was shorter, it still would not be worth your time as most of the actual contents fail to make this film enjoyable.