Begotten is a 1989 American experimental horror film written and directed by E. Elias Merhige. It stars the largely unknown actors Brian Salsberg, Donna Dempsey, Stephen Charles Barry and members of Merhige's theatre company Theatreofmaterial. Its unconventional narrative depicts the suicide of a godlike figure and the births of Mother Earth and the Son of Earth, who undertake a journey across a dying world.