BEGOTTEN (1990)

BEGOTTEN (1990) (UR) Dir. E. Elias Merhige
72 mins.

 

 

So there's God (Heaven). Then, God eviscerates himself, giving birth to Goddess (Earth). Goddess then proceeds to ejaculate dead God and place the sperm in her vagina, creating Son (Man). The Son is paraplegic and constantly seizing, and for the rest of the film, he is used as a pawn in some mysterious cult's strange and occult rituals. Plot over.

 

 

The previous paragraph was probably as short as the script. This isn't a bad thing, though. The movie itself does get tedious, as the death, insemination and rebirth narrative are all accomplished within fifteen minutes, meaning the last hour and fifteen are watching the Son quiver as hooded figures drag him around and act spooky. You know, as opposed to Spookies.

 

 

It's a fairly dialectic and Gnostic setup, humanity as the progeny of fucked up "gods" and it's no doubt a comment on Marx, and Crowley's Book of Law, but the film does drag in its pacing. That being said, this movie looks, and sounds absolutely GORGEOUS. I have no lack of love for it because of these two things. Begotten is like a moving painting, with a guttural noise soundtrack... the stuff of nightmares. Think Lynch, Svankmajer, even Kern, then subtract all narrative. It should come to no surprise that this film heavily influenced industrial art culture throughout the 90's. I don't know what to say... I love it, it's high art, and it's boring. I think films of this ilk should just be its own genre called Tripscreen. 7/10