Begotten is a 1991 experiment/horror film, directed and written by E. Elias Merhige.

The film heavily deals with religion and the biblical story of the Creation. But as Merhige revealed during Q&A sessions, its primary inspiration was a near death experience he had when he was 19, after a car crash. The film features no dialogue, but rather uses harsh and uncompromising images of human pain and suffering to tell its tale. It also has no music, instead, the movie is accompanied by the sounds of crickets, and occasionally other sound effects such as grunting and thrashing.

The film was shot on black and white reversal film, and then every frame was rephotographed for the look that is seen. The only colors are black and white. There are no half-tones. This is intended to add to the eerie atmosphere of the movie, as sometimes the viewer cannot always exactly make out what it is being shown, but can still infer a sense of suffering. The look of the film is described in the trailer as “a Rorschach test for the eye”. Merhige said that for each minute of original film, it took up to 10 hours to rephotograph it for the look desired.

Almost 1,900 notes?!! I’ve been wanting to watch this for forever and I guess now I know of around 1,900 other people to potentially watch it with, WHICH RULES. Now if only I could get my hands on a copy.

ALSO: SORRY SHANNON IF YOU SAW THIS AND IT SCARED YOU, DIDN’T THINK OF IT ‘TIL NOW :(. I’LL PUT IT ON PRIVATE IF YOU WANT…

(via indarkhollows)