10 Hidden Gem Body Horror Movies

9. Begotten

Tetsuo II Body Hammer
Theatre Of Material

E. Elias Merhige's Begotten sets its stall out early by having a mysterious robed figure - referred to in the film's credits as God Killing Himself - take a razor and disembowel himself.

Having removed some of his own organs, this now-dead person has a strange run in with a character dubbed Mother Earth. Despite the lack of life in "God", Mother Earth manages to, err, arouse him and use his sperm to impregnate herself.

Yep, there are certain sentences your writer here never expected to be writing when making that first coffee of the day this morning. Still, it's tough to do such a list and not include Begotten for its sheer grim insanity.

With Mother Earth pregnant, she gives birth to the twisted, convulsing Son of Earth before then abandoning her offspring.

To think, all of this is merely the setup work for Begotten, with the meat of the picture following Son of Earth as he throws up pieces of organs, gets burned alive, is then resurrected, has to witness the rape and murder of his mother, and is then once again killed.

Begotten is certainly something.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.