Begotten (1990)

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Avg Rating: 2.8 / 5. Voted: 132

No one cared thus far. Do you?

AKA:
Directed by: E. Elias Merhige
Starring: Brian Salzburg (God), Donna Dempsey (Mother Earth), Stephen Charles Barry (Son of Earth)
Country: United States
Language:
Runtime: 01:12:05
Genres: Bizarre-Surreal, Gore-Splatter, Sexual-Violence against Men, Rape-Sexual-Violence against Women, Self-Harm, Necrophilia, Torture

Plot – Spoilers:
Begotten is a silent surreal movie that begins with a robed man slashing himself with a razor. He then proceeds to disembowel himself at which point a woman emerges from under his robe. She engages with him sexually, rubs his cum on her bushy cunt and is soon pregnant!

The woman delivers a spastic malformed grown man who crawls about before a strange group of people come upon him and proceed to torment him and later, his mother.

Begotten is a good enough watch without assigning any purpose or meaning. However, if you’d like to assign purpose or a philosophical meaning to it all, the credits help in this regard. The first man was God Killing Himself. The woman was Mother Earth. And the spastic man, the Son of Earth.

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zioSilleni
zioSilleni
May 26, 2024 3:12 pm

I guess Baudelaire and company would have love this. It’s been a long hour! ..Well, about 70 mins long. As they say – Not for everyone. I enjoyed it.
As a Trippy Underground Poetic Decadent piece this little movie does the job, and i reckon (even if, how can one know) it greatly achieves what it aspired to achieve; with limited resources but a strong solid vision. Ok, I wouldn’t have minded a little more clarity here and there. .. The brief explanatory description also definitely helped, not sure what i would have made of it otherwise.
…It doesn’t make sense in my opinion to criticize something like this for pacing etc or any “normal” movie catgorie, it s simply not that kind of work. If u look for a “movie” and tend to get bored by the lingering and insistence and monotony i suggest you just skip it. I d say it s more like a painting (an evolving one) than a movie, more like a music if u want. I would’t mind havin it hangin on a wall for a few days (..my partner would:). …
It is a good art piece, in my opinion way superior to things like the movies of that guy of the melancholy, or others like where the dead go to die. Tbh the accusation of pretentiousnes in this case seems to me just closemindedness or misunderstandin.. ..Anyway, I’m curious to see this feature film now

swamp
swamp
March 6, 2024 12:43 am

Had to watch this by skipping 5 secs at a time here and there, painfully slow, but interesting in some instances. To the majority of people the complete absence of dialogue could have made the film feel even longer, but personally I found it to be a bold move. Son Of Earths actor did a brilliant job portraying the frustrating nature of the character. The constant heartbeat heard throughout the whole movie really didnt help the pacing but that feeling of uneasiness it provoked was brilliant. Not an easy hour, the one spent watching this thing. I dont regret the watch, even tho the movie at the end of the ride leaves you with absolutely nothing. 2.5/5.

GT
GT
January 2, 2024 1:10 am

Does anyone know a dsbm band called Silencer? He used clips from this film for his music video.

noir
noir
April 27, 2023 3:47 am

This is why I don’t watch the movies on here based on the first few ratings.. the 12 year olds always find the utter shit to be “rather excellent” and actual good movies “too slow”

bigdickrick69
bigdickrick69
April 19, 2023 5:16 am

watching this after 4 shots n a blinker gotta be the goofiest shit ever dawg

AnOldBoy
AnOldBoy
February 25, 2023 10:24 am

Starts of and grabs your attention but the longer it goes on that attention diminishes. Yes it is (imo) an art house film but at the end (for me) felt like an art project. Still it has its moments. Difficult to score though ….. 2/5

ughh
ughh
January 30, 2023 10:41 pm

perfect

Johnny Mnemonic
Johnny Mnemonic
January 24, 2023 1:52 am

it’s just an excellent depressive black metal background, the idea of a dead God is absurd, God is eternal and one! men slaughtering men off the Devil’s Legion plan. infidelity is crap Blasphemy makes us pigs, be a sinner but don’t be stupid otherwise, you’re on shaky ground and cracks are opening the heat is coming up. fifty thousand years we will live standing in one day looking up naked and shivery fearing the unknown is it left or is it, wright.

sasha francesca
sasha francesca
September 21, 2022 9:41 pm

maán i was looking for some gore and then this, such a boring movie tbh

Bartel
Bartel
May 12, 2022 2:01 am

Those were the times:
It seems back then you could make a movie like BEGOTTEN, someone takes a look at it and before you know it your second film is starring Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich.
Think of BEGOTTEN as your business card nowadays? Would Disney hire you from the spot for the next Marvel movie. Don´t think so. I really have to rewatch SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE

asseater223
asseater223
October 24, 2021 10:54 pm

bitches these days man????‼️

Glum.Sullen
Glum.Sullen
August 6, 2021 5:05 pm

Anybody who doesnt like this is a faggot, plain and simple.

FrankyTeardrop
FrankyTeardrop
July 25, 2021 11:34 pm

ridiculously pretentious and too long i slept thru it twice still kinda groovy though

fred fat
fred fat
April 14, 2021 8:36 pm

its not ideal to handle a razor if u have a twitch

Zed Man
Zed Man
January 24, 2021 9:43 am

What sort of drugs was the director on? This was just awful and not in a good way. Utter rubbish and thats being kind. 0/5.

listerjed1
listerjed1
January 22, 2021 12:50 pm

I am pretty open to new things, and film is an art from after all, so I gave this a watch. It actually started to hurt my eyes after about 15 mins. I don’t understand why someone who has a message they want to convey would film in extreme, shaky close up with blinding lighting and no focus. it is so grainy, you can’t tell what is going on at any point! Kudoes to EUM for keeping these coming, but this is appaling!

spoopy
spoopy
January 3, 2021 3:55 pm

Sounds like libturd shit. I’ll pass thanks.

g
g
June 19, 2020 5:37 am

i normally love some pretentious art, if only to pull it apart and laugh at it, but jesus christ. this was so boring i actually almost fell asleep, no hyperbole.

Sara
Sara
November 1, 2019 9:35 pm

Mother Nature gives birth to god and his son suffers the consequences. Beautiful without being pretentious, surprisingly.

Thank you for this site – I’d already seen a great deal of the films on here, but now I’ve made it my mission to see every movie you have on file here. Really enjoying it — Thank you for that!

Mike T
Mike T
September 21, 2019 8:28 am

This is rather excellent. For me, the point is “juxtaposition,” and not just by the obvious life and death, but if you wanna follow that thread, then god is dead but man lives on as the offspring of a godless world. But what do I know.