Begotten Review

Movie: Begotten
By: Maniac E
Date: February 10, 2014

One To Experience

Every now and then you want to see something different, something weird and/or something ground breaking. Well Begotten is that type of film that includes all of the above. This can be pushed in the category "experimental" since it has been over twenty years now since it got released it can still hold its own. Let the experimenting begin!

We start off with a time unknown and a world unknown, where a god is depressed and is mutilating himself with a razor. Sacrificing itself to let a new part of him be born "Mother Nature", as it is born the greetings of the new life form is all but happy and friendly. So as this new life form tries to sustain the punishment it tries to live and tries to be what it wants to be, it all fails. And new things happen as the remains of mother nature get buried in the ground. For new life. Of course, there is a lot more to it but since you need to experience the film for itself I won't go into too much detail.

As I said this is an experimental project a film that has more to say than just gore, killing, and being disturbing. It is about life, death and re-birth in general. The black and white grainy film just helps to get more into the atmosphere of the film which is great since for me it has been a long time since I really got sucked in by a movie. The power of the film for me was the setting and the way it portrays itself, nowhere in the whole thing do you get any explanation on what is going on, which time it is set and where it all goes to. The violence is there to make you feel uncomfortable but also tries to tell the story through it. The film has a running time of 76 minutes but it are 76 minutes of beautiful art and makes you sit in the end thinking what did I watch and will take a few hours to sink in deeply not to be forgotten.

As I said the photography is grainy, pixelated, smudged and dirty looking which is such a cool and effective way of showing us how the world is being reborn. All the references next to the brutality and gore is done in such a way you can understand that it stands for more than just for instance water being poured down on a man/being. It all feels like it is meant to be more and for the water, you can see it as cleansing and these things really make the film for me. Don't make any mistake this movie is violent! In the biggest sense of the word. It is this violence that really makes us understand what it takes to be born, die and reborn again. It is the birth of mother nature which will not be an easy delivery.

This really is a "one of a kind movie" which you will remember longer than just a day. Maybe you will remember it by the gore and brutality but maybe you will remember it by the poetic parts of it. It really makes you think and shows what either human nature can do or what it takes to do new things with life. The film will take you completely out of your comfort zone, it will make you see its innovation. For me this is an intriguing, original, in your face film which I will keep on talking about!