Killing of the Sacred Deer is the latest film from Greek Director Yorgos Lanthimos. My first exposure to Lanthimos was his debut film Dogtooth, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars a few years back. I have to admit, I was not impressed with that film. I later saw his film The Lobster (which also starred Colin Farrell) and kind of connected. I liked that film, which was more dystopian than Killing of the Sacred Deer but equally bizarre. The title of this film suggests a connection to the Greek mythology of Agamemnon, a king who accidentally kills a sacred deer that belongs to Artemis. As atonement, Agamemnon is forced to make a human sacrifice. The connection is not direct, but does seem to be the inspiration for this film.
Steven Murphy (Farrell) is a surgeon. He appears to live a fairytale life. His wife, Anna (Nicole Kidman), is also a doctor. They live in the suburbs in what appears to be Cincinnati, Ohio. They have a large house, two beautiful children, nice cars and an active social life. Murphy has an odd relationship with a young man, Martin (Barry Keoghan), although it is not clear what the nature of their relationship might be. As the story progresses, Murphy is face with life-altering decisions involving his children, Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and Bob (Sunny Suljic), who appear to be suffering from some sort of disorder. The situation tests the family dynamics and exposes cracks in family unity.
Anyone who knows anything about Lanthimos' films will probably guess that this is not a happy ending film. It is typical for the other films I have seen from this Director. They have a really strange flavor that is not going to satisfy the average movie goer. His films delve into dark subject matter and test psychological barriers. The characters are often hard to like. The dialogue is choppy but muted. An odd combination that give the characters a detached emotional connection. Without connecting to characters makes liking a film far more difficult. Yet Lanthimos has an odd ability in his methodology to draw us in. It is a weird combination of elements. I was engaged by the film itself, even though the characters were cold and aloof. The narrative arc has a definitive climax that is as shocking as it is unsatisfying. It was a tough pill to swallow. Which severely affected my thoughts about the film.
Keoghan was in the recent film Dunkirk. He was okay in that film, but this one sets him apart. His performance was exceptional. As aggravating and detached as these characters are, Keoghan delivered something special here. Farrell and Kidman were rock solid, as were their film children, Cassidy and Suljic. The cast was believable. The performances, within the framework of muted dialogue, managed to keep the story on track and maintain my engagement. I think Farrell's exceptional performance in The Lobster made him a great choice for the lead in this film. I liked that actors in spite of the odd delivery.
Killing of the Sacred Deer has excessive sexual content. It is an underlying theme throughout the film. The sexual content is frequent, bizarre and gratuitous at times. Sexual content is prevalent both in terms of nudity, underage sexuality and sexual acts depicted. This is definitely not a film for young viewers. Aside from the rampant sexuality, the film is brutally violent with a moderate gore factor. Not slasher gore, but it does have disturbing violence. The thematic material in the film has a violent undertone woven into the story. The subject matter made this film an easy R rating for the MPAA. I thought the sexual content was overdone.
I liked Killing of the Sacred Deer better than Dogtooth but not as well as I liked The Lobster. The latter made more sense to me, even with its unique strangeness and open ending. This film had a closed ending (although not necessarily satisfying) but there were also a lot of loose ends for me. There were aspects of the story that were not neatly explained or tied together. I was left feeling like I missed a lot. In fact, this is one of those films that you might understand better with a second pass. But the slow pacing and odd dialogue are too much for me. I think I will leave it to the experts out there to tie things together. I am satisfied to view this movie as worthwhile for anyone who likes dark, bizarre films. I can enjoy films like that, but this one fell just a bit short for me. I would recommend it streaming. 7/10.
