Written by: Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou
Starring: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Alicia Silverstone
Rating: [4/5]
Controlling the controllables at times remains the only option we have in our lives even if we cannot comprehend how we found ourselves in a particular circumstance or what has caused this. This gives the temptation to try and control beyond what we can and builds a frustration that The Killing of a Sacred Deer utilizes to grind down its audience in this sense of hopelessness and confusion. So it very much sounds like a Yorgos Lanthimos film and he delivers something disturbing and ponderous here.
Cardiovascular surgeon Steven (Colin Farrell) meets teenage boy Martin (Barry Keoghan) at a diner, where the former invites the latter to his house to share a dinner with his family. Martin increasingly wants the attention of Steven, to much confusion, until Steven learns a patient who died on his surgery table years ago was Martin’s father. Now seeking some type of justice, Martin tasks Steven with killing one of his family members as punishment, or they will all eventually die by supernatural causes.
As strange as it gets par and for the course for a Yorgos Lanthimos film, The Killing of a Sacred Deer takes inspiration from the Greek tale “Iphigenia in Aulis” where Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter at the command of a God. In the instance of our film here, the God comes in the form of a teenage boy portrayed by Barry Keoghan as it tests the resolve of its characters as Steven needs to make the choice now or have all of his family taken away from him one by one with afflictions out of his control. It would begin with them being paralyzed, refusing to eat, and then begin to bleed out of their eyes before finally perishing. As a doctor himself, one would think he would be best suited to help avoid these afflictions, but as the narrative displays, he cannot do anything to stop it other than acquiesce to the demand made by Martin.
This feature provides so much to dig into as we navigate these horrific circumstances for Steven that no one should ever have to undertake. A way to pay for his mistakes but in a manner no one would ever think possible. It goes against every single paternal instinct but remains something forced upon him and he needs to act. While such a dark predicament, Lanthimos and his co-writer Efthimis Filippou know how to inject some pitch black comedy into their stories and we receive that in droves here. It causes those laughs where it feels wrong to laugh but it leaves no other reaction for a release from the stress caused by Martin. The scene, alone, where Steven goes to his children’s school to ask the teacher which one of his students does better academically as part of his decision-making for which one to kill is incredibly dark but somewhat hilarious. This feature does brilliantly in getting at what would even go into the thinking of making this decision, which therefore unearths some dark and repressed human truths about what value we assign to each person.
Going through this situation only gets made worse as we take in this sniveling performance by Barry Keoghan who does so well in the role of Martin. Born to play a part in a Lanthimos film, Keoghan matches the deadpan and dark elements necessary to play this character, and the intrigue of this character remains so captivating. This film does not want to explain anything as to why he can control and essentially place this curse on Steven’s family but ultimately it does not matter. Martin wants this eye for an eye and through no pleading for mercy will he let this go but the way Keoghan plays it with his straight face the entire time and a complete indifference matches the right energy in opposition to Steven and his family obviously not having a great time. The scene where he eats some spaghetti while all bruised just sums it all up and how he represents almost an inhumane entity rather than a person at times. Keoghan remains the standout but everyone else, especially Farrell, bought into this story and what Lanthimos required of them unsurprisingly as with all actors in his films.
An unnerving experience from beginning to end, The Killing of a Sacred Deer creates an impossible circumstance and forces its characters to make decisions no one could ever dream of making. However, applying this pressure like Efthimis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos do through this narrative unveils some wickedly raw and honest thinking we do as humans that ultimately drives the entertainment found in this film. This feature contains dark comedy, deadpan line delivery by its actors, and some sudden and horrific violence thrown in there. A Lanthimos film in every possible describable way, and one that will refuse to leave one’s mind after the final credits roll.
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