I had picked up the video box for this film a dozen and a half times before I finally decided to rent it. I'm a big fan of this kind of horror film: cheap, independently produced, and inventive in their visuals. Begotten is filmed in stark black and white, with such a high contrast that you often cannot tell exactly what's going on. That's part of the innovation of this film: the horror arises because you're not 100% sure what you're seeing. Sometimes, when you do figure out what's going on, you've got to turn away.
The story is simple and, well, not really important. Most of the information can only be gleaned from the credits. A god kills himself, and Mother Earth impregnates herself with his dying seed. She then gives birth to "Flesh on Bone," i.e., mankind. The film is basically a creation myth, and also an apocalyptic myth. Unidentified beings end up destroying both Mother Earth and Flesh on Bone. None of this will really ruin the film for you, so don't worry. In fact, for those who demand a story, my little blurb might help you like it a little more than you would have if you hadn't read it (though I doubt people who are obsessed with scripts will like it at all; it's definitely for a limited audience).
Begotten isn't the best of its type. At only over 70 minutes (the box says 78, but I think it's a bit less), it still ends up feeling slow. Too much time is spent on each scene. If I were the director, I would have made the film a lot faster. As it is, it can get tedious. At a faster pace, the audience wouldn't have enough time to question and think about each scene. In a film like this, which doesn't really have any meaning or point, only the invention ends up mattering. Begotten probably has somewhere between 8 and 10 scenes in total, and they all go on too long. I still give it an 7/10, though, for its originality.
P.S. If you like this film, may I suggest a few others (which are all perhaps more successful): Incubus (Leslie Stevens, 1965), Tetsuo: The Ironman (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1988), Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1992), Tokyo Fist (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1994?), Haxan (Benjamen Christensen, 1922), Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962), Dead Alive (Peter Jackson, 1989), El Topo (Alejandro Jorodowsky, 1974), and Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jorodowsky, 1986).
The story is simple and, well, not really important. Most of the information can only be gleaned from the credits. A god kills himself, and Mother Earth impregnates herself with his dying seed. She then gives birth to "Flesh on Bone," i.e., mankind. The film is basically a creation myth, and also an apocalyptic myth. Unidentified beings end up destroying both Mother Earth and Flesh on Bone. None of this will really ruin the film for you, so don't worry. In fact, for those who demand a story, my little blurb might help you like it a little more than you would have if you hadn't read it (though I doubt people who are obsessed with scripts will like it at all; it's definitely for a limited audience).
Begotten isn't the best of its type. At only over 70 minutes (the box says 78, but I think it's a bit less), it still ends up feeling slow. Too much time is spent on each scene. If I were the director, I would have made the film a lot faster. As it is, it can get tedious. At a faster pace, the audience wouldn't have enough time to question and think about each scene. In a film like this, which doesn't really have any meaning or point, only the invention ends up mattering. Begotten probably has somewhere between 8 and 10 scenes in total, and they all go on too long. I still give it an 7/10, though, for its originality.
P.S. If you like this film, may I suggest a few others (which are all perhaps more successful): Incubus (Leslie Stevens, 1965), Tetsuo: The Ironman (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1988), Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1992), Tokyo Fist (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1994?), Haxan (Benjamen Christensen, 1922), Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962), Dead Alive (Peter Jackson, 1989), El Topo (Alejandro Jorodowsky, 1974), and Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jorodowsky, 1986).