A disappointment from the pen of cult fave Larry Cohen, MISBEGOTTEN is an unpleasant, topsy-turvy flick about a spermicidal maniac who donates his seed and then insists that an unsuspecting couple reward him with a Daddy's rights.The film premiered on cable before being released on home
video.
In the course of a car-jacking, serial killer Billy Crapshoot (Kevin Dillon) murders songwriter Conan Cornelius (Stefan Arngrim) and assumes his identity. After keeping Cornelius's appointment to be an anonymous sperm donor, Billy enjoys the high life at the late musician's home. He murders
Cornelius's girlfriend Myrna (Kate Luyben) when she impugns his sexual prowess.
Paul (Nick Mancuso) and Caitlin (Lysette Anthony), an infertile couple, unwittingly become the recipients of Billy's demented gene pool after Caitlin is artificially inseminated with Billy's seed which she believes is Conan Cornelius's. At the clinic run by oleaginous Dr. Dotterweigh (Matthew
Walker), Billy tortures a physician into revealing Caitlin's whereabouts.
Tiring of merely sending flowers in Cornelius's name, expectant father Billy stalks Caitlin, threatens her shaky marriage, and confronts a jealous Paul. Billy slays Paul and sends his head in a gift box to Caitlin's baby shower. Later, he kidnaps Caitlin from a maternity hospital. Although Billy
emerges victorious from a shootout with cops, Caitlin grabs a fallen officer's gun and blows off his private parts. Using a falsified blood test, Dr. Dotterweigh convinces the emotionally fragile Caitlin that Nick is the father of the child she gives birth to.
MISBEGOTTEN is an aptly titled scare-mongering tale about not putting all your fertile eggs in one demented basket. Ridiculously plotted in Larry Cohen's typically imaginative but slapdash manner, the film doesn't measure up to Cohen's other outre genre pieces like GOD TOLD ME TO (1976). Camp
quickly gets the upper hand and quells any chills. Besides the jokey tone, the film is hurt by a minefield of plot-holes. Why does Billy bother to keep Cornelius's donor appointment? Why doesn't Caitlin double check on Dr. Dotterweigh's claims about her infant's bloodline? Memorable for a few sick
scenes, MISBEGOTTEN is a souped-up slasher flick that bastardizes its own intriguing bad seed premise. (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, nudity, sexual situations.)
