Begotten is one of those movies that's aimed at a very specific audience. It's not for people who are easily offended, or even mildly so. It's not for people who prefer easy-to-follow plots or who prefer clear, crisp cinematography. It's really for people who relish weird movies, particularly ones that Mean Something, the better to analyze endlessly. Me, I don't care so much for the over-analyzing bit, but I do like me some weirdness. And boy, does Begotten get weird. And gory.Reasons you might not like this movie, reader: 1) It's in black and white. (I know!) 2) It has no dialogue. 3) It looks like it was shot on Super 8mm film, transferred to Betamax, copied over to cave drawings, and then digitally recorded. What I mean to say is that grainy is a word that applies here. It's kind of like the old days, when one might get a partial signal for a TV channel to which one had not subscribed. Except at no point is the signal clear in Begotten. Where was I? Oh, yeah. 4) Its religious undertones are overtones, and they're not exactly reverential. 5) There's plenty of blood and other fluids.Now those of you who, according to the above paragraph, not like this movie should stop reading now. Are they gone? Okay, rest of you. Here's the basic plot. There are no twists – the appeal is visual, believe it or not – because there's almost no story. It begins with God killing himself through disembowelment, which somehow causes Mother Earth to be born, and then a few minutes later she gives birth to a fully formed Son of God, who's really nothing more than a shaking skeleton with some skin on him, and then they're beset by faceless cannibals, and then things get weird.If you do watch Begotten, be sure to cleanse yourself with some wholesome Yo Gabba Gabba afterward.

It's difficult to explain what Begotten's about. It's better to be direct and say what this film is. So, Begotten is a collection of stretched out scenes with no dialogue, ambient sounds and indecipherable cinematography. To give credit where credit is due, the beginning scene is pretty good. While it may still be a bit too long, it's creepy and pretty disturbing enough for it to be a pretty good and memorable scene. Unfortunately, it's mostly downhill from here. The rest of the film is indecipherable and boring garbage that felt way too long (ironic since the film's actually quite short).Even if the Begotten was shorter, it still would not be worth your time as most of the actual contents fail to make this film enjoyable.

Okay I admit that I am very mad at this film after watching it for the first time. I came in with such anticipation of seeing the creepiest and weirdest film I've ever seen and it was neither of those. It feels like a bad student film very derivative of early short films by Clive Barker and David Lynch. People have claimed how visceral it is, but I simply found it boring and very cartoonish. The one thing I did enjoy were the sound effects of crickets and fires crackling, etc. The flaw with these sounds are they help put you to sleep for what is already a very boring piece of art. Is combining strange negative filming, no dialogue and minimal sound effects an interesting idea? Perhaps, but all these things have been done before, separately and with much better results. The story, if there is one, is just a convoluted mess. Although the style of filming may be interesting it also makes it difficult to tell what exactly is going on. I'm sure many reviewers who love this film will say I don't understand it or don't like experimental films. Hey, I love experimental films like the ones by the aforementioned Barker and Lynch. I even watched the BRILLIANT experimental film from 1955 called Dementia a few days before I watched this film and absolutely loved it. If you want to give the director some points for originality go ahead, but I assure you, you'll watch it once and never feel the need to see it again.

Begotten left me wondering whether it has been a movie or a video installation. Either way, it's been truly disturbing.The main question is why are such movies/installations treated like art. There has been some rudimentary plot that could have been interpreted anyway you'd like. Sound and music followed what happened on the screen, yet it all sounded like random, albeit harrowing, noise. As if someone tried very hard to trigger a suicidal reaction in viewers.At the time of it's creation Begotten must have been a challenge to make. Today with digital photography and powerful computers generating abstract images, it would have probably been easier to make.