Once a month, Kelly dares Jessica to watch a film surrounding the monthly theme. These challenges are meant to scare, or unsettle, Jessica, and broaden her horror horizons.
KELLY:
November is our light hearted, fun month so I reached out again to our fantastic supporters to choose a film for Jessica to watch and I only received one response -- Begotten (1990). Lucky for Jessica as this is one weird, graphic, art film without dialogue. I have a suspicion that this won't be a particularly easy watch for her, but I think she will get something out of its underlying philosophical concepts as she loves a film with commentary! Good luck Jess.
JESSICA:
Begotten was definitely an experience to watch. I spent the majority of the hour and twelve minutes run time watching the events unfold in either disgust or intrigue. At times when I couldn't stand to continue watching another disemboweling -- and ready to peace out -- the scene would shift and I would be drawn back in. As things happened (or did not happen) I kept trying to figure out what everything represented and my mind went everywhere. At one point while watching the rape and beating of Mother Earth, I couldn't help but think about what we give as individuals and how much people are willing to take from us. However, I truly wasn't understanding what I had seen until the credits rolled and each character was named; it hit me like a ton of bricks and then became so obvious. After Begotten finished, I ended up reading up on the director, his inspirations for the film and just the films themes in general. While some images disturbed me, I would actually recommend people watch it (available on Youtube), though, with the caveat that they realize it is heavy on early Nietzschean philosophy and contains artistic graphic imagery that borders on the extreme horror side.