Development Begotten was written, produced and directed by Merhige, who, following studies at
State University of New York, developed an interest in the theatre after attending several performances while in
Manhattan. According to Merhige, he was intrigued by the highly visualized form of storytelling, which provoked what he described as "an otherworldly response". He was particularly interested in the performances of the Japanese
butoh dance troupe Sankai Juku, who were known for blending grotesque imagery with a transgressive dance style. Merhige was fascinated by the degree of interconnectivity among its core members—knowing everything about one another and engaging in a more personal level of interaction. In 1985, Merhige founded Theatreofmaterial, a small
experimental theatre production company based in
New York City, intending to create a similar group dynamic. Merhige conceived
Begotten in 1983, describing its genesis as "a vision that moved through me like a great storm". It was developed into a story format after Merhige suffered an episode of
sleep paralysis. The sensation of "feel[ing] like you are dying" and being unable to move provided Merhige with inspiration, and after the symptoms subsided he began writing in an attempt to express his views and beliefs. The project was originally written as a dance or theatre production, with elements of
opera and
tragedy. Merhige envisioned the production as an immersive experience, with the sets built around its audience and performed with a live orchestra. After discovering that it would cost a quarter of a million dollars to produce, Merhige abandoned the idea. Merhige later decided to implement the concept into a motion picture after experimenting with his camera. This change in format allowed Merhige the opportunity to document Theatreofmaterial's work, as many of its performers were transitioning outside the company to pursue other interests.
Writing and pre-production Merhige developed the script with members of Theatreofmaterial. They strove to evoke emotions which they felt were avoided by most directors and performers. Merhige consulted with the television writer and film historian Tom Gunning on the story. In preparation for script-writing, Merhige and members of Theatreofmaterial performed ritual
breathing exercises. Merhige described this process as "breath[ing] to the point of hysteria". He brought portions of the work-in-progress script to rehearsals, which were followed by group discussion and reflection on the material as it took shape. As a visual artist, Merhige said that 19th-century
impressionist and
symbolist painting were a primary source of influence, and had a profound impact on his crafting "a world that existed between painting and dreams". In addition, earlier paintings by
Hieronymus Bosch and
Francisco Goya further influenced the film's early development. Merhige was further influenced by the artist
Antonin Artaud and philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche, which he felt had not been fully explored on film. The first draft was completed within six months. The group expanded the script's abstract ideas into more concrete and enactable scenes over the following four and a half months, during a period of extensive rehearsals. Merhige said that the rehearsals were mainly focused on group cohesion rather than specific
choreography, which allowed the actors to get "in tune" with their characters.
Begotten was made on a budget of around $33,000 ($ in ). It was partially funded by Merhige's grandfather, who had set Merhige up with a trust fund for medical school. Additional costs were covered by Merhige from the income he received while working multiple jobs as a special effects artist. Writing on the distinction of such independent projects, Matthew Edwards comments that by financing independently, filmmakers like Merhige were allowed more creative freedom when developing their ideas.
Filming Principal photography began in the mid-to-late 1980s and depending on the sources, lasted for between three and five-and-a-half months. Merhige assumed multiple roles, including
cinematography and
special effects, and used a
16mm Arriflex camera on a Kodak Plus-X, a black-and-white
reversal film stock. Most of the film crew were Theatreofmaterial members, though some film industry professionals were involved, including the
costume designer Celia Bryant, and the
special effects artist Dean Mercil. Some of Merhige's family assisted with production, including his brother David Merhige, who is credited as the film's as field coordinator. Most of the scenes were shot at a construction site between New York City and
New Jersey, where Merhige was permitted to shoot for twenty days when construction crews were not working. The construction crew occasionally assisted by building landscapes for the mountains. The first scene to be filmed was the opening passage depicting God self-disembowelling and Mother Earth emerging from his remains. The sequence where the Son of Earth drags himself across the desert was filmed with a
long-focus lens over hot sand, which produced a
mirage-like screen distortion.
Time-lapse photographs of sunrises and sunsets were shot by the director, who spent two days in the mountains near
Santa Fe and
Albuquerque. Additional sequences of sprouting plants were filmed inside a large and specially built
terrarium. Merhige characterized the atmosphere during production as a powerful, almost ceremonial experience that was "life-changing" for those involved. After filming wrapped up, Merhige found it difficult to move on from the project and felt a sense of mourning and the loss of an emotional high.
Cinematic style using an
optical printer. Each minute required eight to ten hours of labor to process.
Begotten is shot in a dark, grungy and visceral style. Distorted perspectives and degraded image quality were used to evoke an ancient and otherworldly atmosphere. The film has been described as "a cinematic
Rorschach test of grotesque, imagery" and "a feature-length fever dream". Merhige was interested in crafting imagery through
analog format and sought a decayed look that the footage had been damaged through time and wear. He said: The influences for
Begotten visual style include
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920),
Blood of the Beasts (1949),
Seven Samurai (1954) and ''
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes'' (1971). He also lists the unconventional style
Andrzej Munk,
Sergei Eisenstein and
Luis Buñuel. Other influences identified by critics include
David Lynch's
Eraserhead (1977),
Dimitri Kirsanoff's
Ménilmontant (1926) and
Tobe Hooper's
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), as well as
tribal art,
ethnographic studies and the paintings of
Piero della Francesca. Visual underminings from 1930s horror films, such as
intertitles, was also commented on by
David Annwn Jones, who wrote that it was utilized to express its own set of evolving visual ideas and techniques. Before and during
Begotten shooting, Merhige experimented with different types of film. In one experiment, he ran an unexposed
negative against sandpaper to scratch its surface before shooting on the damaged reel, and in another Merhige modified the
film emulsion and
frame rate to create a staggered time and motion effect. Footage was deliberately shot
overexposed, to reduce the details of the image. Unsatisfied with the results, Merhige decided on an
optical printer for further processing. He was unable to find an optical printer priced within his budget, so he built one himself. The printer was constructed in eight months with spare parts from camera stores and special effects houses where he had worked. Merhige had worked as a special effects designer for various companies, including a
Disney television series that involved the animation technique of
rotoscoping. This experience gave him the technical knowledge needed to handle the film's
post-production and
visual effects on his own. The post-production process was time-consuming, with each minute of footage generated by the optical printer taking between eight and ten hours to complete. Each frame of raw footage was fed into the optical printer and projected onto an unused film negative; multiple
photographic filters, including color and
neutral-density filters, were used to alter the image. Developing the Kodak Plus-X film stock presented a significant challenge. Unprocessed reels required a dust-free environment as the Kodak film stock is notorious for its fragility; each reel was handled with protective gloves to avoid unintended imperfections. Three months of extensive tests were implemented during
photographic processing. When a test shot was sent to the laboratory for processing, minuscule calibration errors sometimes ruined the shot and the process had to be restarted. Merhige asked that laboratories adjust their usual development procedures to his custom specifications, but was repeatedly turned away. Eventually, he found Fred Schrecka's Kin-O-Lux Labs. Merhige began a friendship with Schreck who taught him to hand-develop his footage. Merhige hired his father for a number of scenes, stating that his father was "very open-minded" to the project. Editor and film-maker
Aram Avakian, whom Merhige had become acquainted with, also supported and encouraged Merhige to complete the project. Results of the
rephotography process removed almost all of the
gray midtones from the visible spectrum, leaving only extreme contrasts of black and white. He used similar techniques for segments of his next film,
Shadow of the Vampire (2001).
Music and sound design Begotten has no dialogue or text apart from its opening intertitles. Merhige chose to make the film
silent after viewing documentary footage of the
bombing of Hiroshima, having been emotionally affected by the complete silence and lack of voice of the victims. Merhige recalled in 2024: Intending to evoke a similar atmosphere to the Hiroshima footage, Merhige developed the film as set "[in] a time that predates
spoken language" in which "communication is made on a sensory level". Frustration with storytelling through
exposition and the limitations dialogue imposed upon narration also contributed to the lack of dialogue in
Begotten. The
film score and
sound effects were written and
mixed by the then novice composer Evan Albam. Merhige and Albam spent a year working on the soundtrack, crafting the right balance of visual and audio cues. The music is
ambient and
dirge-like, and contains
natural sounds such as
bird calls, insect noises and
heartbeats. Music in
Begotten often mirrors the improvised and incomplete atmosphere of early silent films. The sound effects mixed into the score are often
looped, differing from the normal
synchronized sound. Writing for the academic journal
Film International, the artist Ted Knighton argues that this "incomplete" feel to the sound touched upon the themes of creation. He wrote that
Begotten is "not a film of an evolving world, it is [a] film as an evolving world". Scholar Andrew M. Whelan writes, the ambient and unconventional score of
Begotten shares the same thematic style as
power electronics, a form of
noise music, that provokes strong reactions from listeners. In 2016, Merhige began work on a
remaster of the film for a limited-edition
vinyl release set for 2017. Later that year, former
March Violets band member-turned-composer
Tom Ashton announced that he was working with Merhige on an "audio reimagining" of the soundtrack. there have been no new updates on its outcome. ==Release==