Begotten (1989)

Presented in a surreal, gory and entirely visual manner, Begotten tells of the death of religion, the abuse of nature by Man and a nihilistic outlook on what life ultimately is.

Director:

E. Elias Merhige (as Edmund E. Merhige)

Writer:

E. Elias Merhige

Stars:

Brian Salzberg, Donna Dempsey, Stephen Charles Barry

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Brian Salzberg	...	God Killing Himself
Donna Dempsey	...	Mother Earth
Stephen Charles Barry	...	Son Of Earth - Flesh On Bone
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
James Gandia
Daniel Harkins
Michael Phillips
Erik Slavin
Arthur Streeter
Adolfo Vargas
Garfield White

Storyline

God disembowels himself with a straight razor. The spirit-like Mother Earth emerges, venturing into a bleak, barren landscape. Twitching and cowering, the Son Of Earth is set upon by faceless cannibals.

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Plot Keywords:

experimental film | mother earth | razor | graphic violence | extreme film | 

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

None

Release Date:

5 June 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

Začet

Filming Locations:

New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$33,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Theatre Of Material

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Approximately eight to ten hours of optical work - re-photographing, visual treatments, and filtering - was required to produce one minute of film. The total post-production period for the 72-minute movie was eight months.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Title card: Language bearers, Photographers, Diary makers. You with your memory are dead, frozen. Lost in a present that never stop passing. Here lies the incantation of matter. A language forever.

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Connections

Edited into Marilyn Manson: Cryptorchid (1996)

User Reviews

Definitely bizzarre, but the meaning is subjective

Definitely one of the most bizarre pieces of moviemaking you will ever see. You need to sit through "Eraserhead," "Tetsuo:The Iron Man," and the like to have at least some preparation for this one. Not that I am about to claim that I understand what the film's intentions are. If it wasn't for the brief summary on the tape's cover, then I would be completely at loss, and even that wasn't really much help. Then again, as some people below have argued, it just may be some self-indulging mumbo-jumbo, so there might not be any need to stress over the meaning of it. In any case, because people's opinions on this movie are completely bipolar, I simply concluded that it can be looked at as, so to say, "raw matter" or "raw substance" (whichever you prefer), and one should just make out of it what he can, using his/her own perspective, experiences, etc. In other words, it's all very subjective. Personally, I can't say that I got something intellectually fulfilling out of it. I enjoyed the bleakness and weirdness of it all, though we all know how wearisome these things can become. So basically, give it a try if you are into all things out of this world, but you should probably keep you expectations reserved.