...for the most part, it's an ever-constant social stigma, that people often take things out of context, when afforded a limited view of things. With little exception, scrounging opportunist lawyers and politicians shamelessly exploit that very concept, in an effort to champion their own causes. Sure enough, the media itself zeroes in on the dirt and the grime, associated with people, places and things, giving false, or at the very least, mixed views on matters, even though the full view of matters might tell a different story...which probably explains why tabloid newspaper have been and remain, a billion dollar industry; after all, truth be known, people love the dirt...flourish on the bad news...and are pretty much indifferent to untainted normalcy (...come on, let's be honest, 'kay??). Heck, without the idea of taking things out of context...seeing only a small part of the picture, and imposing judgement...making conclusions, without looking at the big picture...like scrutinizing and criticizing framed fine art on the wall, based solely on the singular, unmoving view through an empty paper towel cardboard roll...the classic TV broadcast comedy-of-errors sitcom "Three's Company" wouldn't have lasted...what, eight seasons, was it??...
...anyone who's ever been privy of the surreal and experimental film, "Begotten", or even merely eyeballed the strikingly graphic and interpretively symbolic cover art of the limited digital release of the film, as shown here...at this point...are throwing their hands in the air, rolling their eyes, and letting out one of those exasperating 'tsk-sighs'. Really?? Comparing a beyond-bizarre-and-unconventional film, like "Begotten", with the adolescent-humor-level, playfully innuendo-teasing, comical renderings of "Three's Company"?? Really?? I mean...
really?? Well, yeah...and that's OK. What those unbeknownst, who haven't had the unique and...well, 'pleasurable' and 'displeasurable' is totally at the discretion of the viewer...experience of unwittingly seeing "Begotten", need to understand, before diving into this shocking and mind-scrambling fray...or like this viewer, who was introduced to the film, via a mere unnamed 30-second-plus moment...a wayward, horrific-looking clip, sandwiched amongst others, and posted on one of the countless horror-themed social media pages...not unlike being afforded a horse-blinder's limited view of something specifically monikered, and yet, when taking it all in...for good, or perhaps for not-so-good...might be construed as being something totally different...or at least, more than a bit skewed...
...and so, sizing up "Begotten" with "Three's Company"?? (...there...he said it again...disbelievingly followed by finger pointing, more eye rolls and tsk-sighing) Well, yeah...considering the surreal, twisted and interpretive fervor of the film, such a ludicrous and inconceivable comparison might genuinely, albeit twistedly be referred to, in one's open-minded and ever-experience searching cranial computer cavity (...then again, maybe it's just me...). Like a dream in the dreamscape, which makes total sense in that arena, but senseless in what, according to Hoyle, falls within the concise and logical definition of reality...
...so, y'all ready for a trip to a grotesque, albeit captivating trip to Wackyland?? Y'all ready to blow a circuit, and have your unsuspecting & unprepared brain matter, crash like an overheated laptop computer?? In other words...shall we begin?? Then again...can you say, 'famous last words'??.....
...a haggard, worn, scarred and torn-asunder 'man-being' (...a word of patience, my friends; I'm trying to describe these macabre proceedings as if seeing the film without having read the 'prescribed' synopsis, as literately and visually intended by the filmmaker, which will be explained later), wearing bloodied and weathered celestial robes, is seated in the corner of an undefined room, performing a violent and gory disembowelment of himself, with a straight razor. Bleeding profusely from his belly, as well as expelling a gratuitous amount of blood and gore from his mouth, the end of his life appears to be a most wretchedly agonizing and painful one. However, this 'being's ultra-violent death appears to have ushered in new life, as an appearingly virginal woman arises from beneath the dead body; after glancing at the corpse, and offering a quick moment of mourning, this woman proceeds to sexually arouse the bloodied corpse; after a strained, agonizing and rather extensive triste with the dead 'one' before her, the woman leaves, wanders off into a barren & eternally wide-stretching wasteland, and soon after, becomes pregnant...
...with agonizing and torturous fervor, the woman eventually gives birth to a twitching and convulsing 'man-being', and soon after, leaves the man-like creature to fend for himself in a seemingly dead and decrepit world...which in itself, might be considered an almost heavenly state, considering that the 'man-being' is instead immediately besieged by facial-featureless desert wanderers, who proceed to drag around the man-creature by his umbilical cord-like appendage. Whether by appreciation or retaliation, the 'man-being' orally expels chunks of organic matter, which the faceless nomads excitingly construe as gifts to them. And in retort for this 'rich bounty', the wanderers lay the twitching man-creature on a fiery pyre, and burn him...
...the mysterious woman returns, pulls her tortured and burnt offspring from the fire via his umbilical cord, and proceeds to comfort him. However, such moment of solace is short-lived, as the faceless wanderers intervene, and proceed to rape and kill the woman. Mourning his mother's death, as she is soon after carted away by yet another faceless and nameless cadre of beings, only to be dismembered by them, the open-wounded and fiery-crusted man-creature finds himself also beset by the same heinously torturous beings, who return and dismember him, as well. And in a sort of respectively eulogistic act, the murderous creatures take the remains of both the woman & man-child, and plant them deep within the bowels of the weathered and barren earth...the dry, earthen topology of which soon after, gives way to a rich, lush and prosperous growth of beautiful flowers.....
......ya' know?? It's sometimes rather strange and unexpected, just where horror, in it's profound sense of the word, might well be found. Literal & commercial cinematic and literary incarnations of what might be defined as 'horror' are prevalent, commonplace and wholly accessible to the general masses. However, truth be known, the idea...the very concept of 'horror' is occasionally hiding in the dark recesses of even the most simple and concrete venues...life and death...pain and agony (...heck, filmmaker Clive Barker has deftly and masterfully explored
those, in his amassed and collected macabre writings, his hauntingly surreal paintings, as well as his cinematic achievements in the realm of absolute horror and dark fantasy)...even the hallowed and respected ideas of biblical Creation and Resurrection, themselves...and it is in that, what an extraordinary film like "Begotten" has to offer, herein...and said approach to the film, is without a doubt, one helluva mind-f***!!.....
...but don't take this viewer's word for it, based upon the wholly arcane and demented synopsis, which has been offered above; instead, consider the writer's and filmmaker's intent, as far as what they strove to depict on the screen...and it'a goes a lil' like'a this (...circa, kinda-sorta what they say over at IMDB)...an'a one, an'a two, and...ahem, '
God disembowels himself with a straight razor. The spirit-like Mother
Earth emerges from the corpse, arouses it, inseminates herself with it, and ventures into a bleak, barren landscape, to give birth. Twitching and
cowering, the resulting Son Of Earth is set upon by faceless cannibals'. Mind blown, yet?? Man, talk about 'three's company', right??...
...but we just can't dwell
solely upon the weirdness (...and that's most assuredly putting lightly) of the proceedings, as they are written and depicted; to add to the overall mind-blowing effect of the film, the filmmakers...led by director E. Elias Merhige, later of 2000's unprecedented horror/comedy jewel, "Shadow of the Vampire", with "Begotten" being his first production...have seen fit to present this captivatingly grotesque allegory to biblical Creation, in black and white...and when this reviewer says 'black & white', we're talking the blackest of blacks, and the whitest of whites, with no contrasting shades of grey, in between. The film itself is rendered in a sort of high-contrasting, albeit decrepit & choppy, grain-against-grain-against-grain, which gives the film a look, not far removed from...say, old World War II German propaganda and/or concentration camp films. A good crust of the more disturbingly graphic moments are photographed in extreme close-up, as to make some of the visuals, difficult to decipher or make out, which might well warrant a second...even a third viewing (...this viewer's hand raised, in having done the latter), in order to take it all in. In addition, the film is devoid of any sort of dialogue or specific music, with the only sounds being that of drones, crickets and random moments of aural creepiness. Visually, the sightly-ness of the film might well remind one of early David Lynch, or early pre-'Hellraiser' Clive Barker (...Edison Studio's 1910 "Frankenstein"
also comes to mind, as far as it's singular flavor of surrealism and visceral imagery) .....
...artistic expression in experimental filmmaking is often a rather vague concept, depending upon the film; with specific and clarifying regards to "Begotten", that concept suggests something much more twisted, horrific and unnerving than one might well be prepared for, going into this film...and now, cue the 'forewarned is forearmed' streamer, if you please. Indeed, "Begotten" is unadulterately and relentlessly grotesque, ugly, disturbing and repulsive on so many levels...a subtle pacing, in a way that tries one's patience a bit, and yet, also a balanced pace, enabling the viewer to take in the proceedings at a relatively comfortable level, despite the overall disturbing and uncomfortability of the material, itself...and yes, a most diversive, albeit compelling breed of horror, this definitely is; however, it is also simultaneously and irresistibly captivating...like the old cliche of irresistibly ogling a brutal and bloody traffic accident on the highway...
...it's no secret that inside each and every one of us, there's a dark side...a side of us that, for most of us, we keep repressed...and yet, for a minority few, a side which is lovingly embraced. But make no mistake: that dark side
is there...and it is that pitch-black facet in one's personality, which will most assuredly be drawn to a film like "Begotten"...possibly again...and again...and again...
...without a doubt,
this is one of those 'too-repulsive-to-watch, too-bizarre-to-resist' visual shocks to the senses, not easily forgotten...and far and above, with considerably more substance, than the limited view of but merely one of it's parts, as the old saying goes.....
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