"Dinner for Schmucks"

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.