In the beginning, God slices his stomach open slowly with a straight edged razor and then dies to give birth to Mother Earth. Her son (credited as “Son of the Earth - Flesh on the Bone”) is some type of bizarre naked freak that screams and writhes on the ground. This is the opening to Begotten. I have to admit I was very lucky to get a hold of this film, being that it's my impression that the film is not available for distribution in America. Not for “graphic” content, but mostly likely because it's a black and white silent film made by Edmund E. Merhige who also directed Shadow of the Vampire.

For anyone who's seen Shadow of the Vampire, whether you like the film or not, you can tell that it is made by a person who had very strong feelings about. Begotten is a film that is beautifully crafted on what I can only assume is a very small budget, filmed in the wilderness of 'somewhere,' and is an expression of the truer aesthetics of what film as an art form can be.

I think that my only criticism of this film would be that one might call it pretentious, but I think that if you are going to see a black and white “art” film the “pre tense” is that you'd want to be seeing it; that you are there prepared for that 'art house'. This film doesn't target the Hollywood blockbuster audience, and one shouldn't expect anything other than beautiful and disturbing imagery from this film.

It is disturbing; it requires you to think; and more than anything else, Begotten thinks highly of your intelligence. I do have to say I watched the film 3 hours ago and am still processing what I saw. I can't encourage anyone that loves strange art films to watch this film enough. As hard as it is to find (try bit torrent) - find it, watch it, be absorbed by it, and take your time to piece the whole thing together.