Set in present time, society is getting stale when everyone revolves around using iPhones and stuff and going with the flow rather than actually thinking for themselves. The President of the United States is shot, and in the aftermath a family of Satanists takes this as a sign for attempting to open a doorway to hell.
Some of these extreme flicks are a bit hard to comprehend. I mean, I would never have figured the above out if it hadn’t been written in the beginning of the film. There’s a lot of violence, but I couldn’t have figured out the Satanist part. I’m also lost when it comes to how the doorway to hell should be opened. But on the other hand, there would be no chance in hell that I’d figure out Begotten either…
The strong part of the movie isn’t necessarily the violence—at least not by itself. But there is the contrast of the kid, a girl maybe four or five years old, and the over-the-top violence that really makes me uncomfortable when I watch. The scenes are mixed, and it goes from ultraviolent to beautiful and innocent in a heartbeat. There are beautiful sequences of flowers and butterflies, and suddenly gross footage of a decomposing corpse, which is very unsettling. It’s done a few times and succeeds in shocking effect every time too!
It’s hard to evaluate the acting; what should be the comparison point? It’s not anything that would get any award, but on the other hand, it’s a bit better than most of the low-budget splatter films I’ve seen. And there’s not much humor either (luckily). Many of the scenes are very original, and there seems to be a lot of thought put into the film. There isn’t so much nudity, but it makes up for that with the gore. It’s really well done, and there are few, if any, scenes where someone chews on intestines’; it’s a matter of opinion, really (no, it’s not a cannibalistic flick).
It’s a gross movie, and as I said before, I was very uncomfortable at times. Still, it’s a very slow-paced story that I don’t really get. There are odd characters who are very entertaining, and if you exclude the Satanist part, it’s so much more entertaining! Look at the gore, the violence, and the portrayal of the characters, and you might find it really entertaining!
Translation of a review I wrote in Swedish a few years ago.
