Begotten(Movie, 1989)

Begotten is a 1989 American experimental horror film written, directed, and produced by E. Elias Merhige. It stars Brian Salsberg, Donna Dempsy, Stephen Charles Barry, and members of Merhige's theatre company, Theatreofmaterial. Its unconventional narrative depicts the suicide of a godlike figure and the resulting births of Mother Earth and the Son of Earth, who set out on a journey across a barren landscape. The film does not contain dialogue, with its visual style evoking early silent films. The film's storyline draws upon creation myths in Christian mythology, Celtic mythology, and Slavic paganism, featuring narrative motifs and religious imagery that reoccur throughout Merhige's work. Other influences include the transgressive artist Antonin Artaud and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The film's visual style was inspired by Georges Franju's Blood of the Beasts, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Stan Brakhage's The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Begotten was originally conceived as a work of experimental theatre featuring dance and live music. It become a film project after Merhige realized that his vision would be too expensive to produce liv... ()