The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Working as a profound meditation on karma, predestination and guilt and a proper scary movie, this is near career-best work from all involved. Be warned: this is tough stuff.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer envelops you in its strange, disturbing world with the manipulative skill of a true surrealist master.

As things spun out of control, getting ever stranger, I started to wonder if the director had merely written himself into a corner and was doubling down on weirdness to get himself out. And yet the film never quite loses its mythic drive. You walk out feeling like you’ve truly had an experience.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer never hedges its bets, never takes its foot off the gas. The same can be said of the actors, from skilled veterans Farrell and Kidman to young Barry Keoghan.

It's a gorgeously sterile film, fascinating to look at, sometimes painful to watch. The performances are outstanding; yet the actors, including Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman, are toned down almost comically, often giving robotic line readings to empty bromides.

“Sacred Deer” feels like a dark, opaque bit of folklore transplanted into an off-kilter modern setting.

This is the feel-bad film of the year. Recommend it to someone you hate.

I remember Tarkovsky (Stalker from 1979 was his best) talking about how he admired Bergman (The Seventh Seal is my favorite of his) and wanted his work to channel the style of Bergman. Yorgos Lanthimos apparently feels similarly about Stanley Kubrick, because this movie feels so much like a Kubrick film. The camera following behind the actors, almost stalking them, feels like another character. The music, ominous and sparse, also feels like a character. The dialog is very staccato, no harmony in the monotone speaking cadence, really lends an air of characters that live subconsciously. I didn't care for the third act but the first 2 were flawless.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The movie isn't bad, it is made quite well. The storytelling and screenplay just didn't quite do much for me

The purpose of this film is to make the audience uncomfortable in every scene through increasingly shocking dialogue and character interactions. It has nothing else to offer, and is clearly the creation of a sadist (by definition) who delights in the suffering of others. I feel sorry for the actors who were tricked into being a part this disturbing fantasy.

Non-direction/acting - every line is delivered completely monotone and devoid of emotion, expression, or character. Each line is read without punctuation or cadence. The acting/characters may as well be performed by robots. Resultantly, the story is irrelevant to the viewer, as the events are not happening to humans in the real world. This is the type of film that insecure people convince themselves that they 'get' and appreciate to make themselves believe they're intellectuals or film connoisseurs. Pretentious experimental style. 3/10.