Film review: The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
This isn’t going to be a film for everyone. At Screen Scenes, we like to think we’re pretty broad-minded and not easily shocked and this film stayed with us for a longggggg time after we watched it. There’s a scene which is up there, as disturbing as anything in Martyrs, which will get you. You’ll know it.
Yorgas Lanthimos is quickly becoming one of our favourite directors – The Lobster was absorbing and phenomenal – and once again he is reunited with Colin Farrell (who knew he would turn out to be an arthouse indie darling?!), who plays his lead protagonist in this movie. Steven Murphy is a heart surgeon and has a beautiful family – wife Anna (Nicole Kidman – fantastic performance) and two kids – in a beautiful home. He regularly meets with a strange teenage boy called Martin (Barry Keoghan – chilling) and the nature of their relationship becomes evident as the film progresses. We’re thrown into a scenario so dark, so disturbing, where Steven has to make the ultimate choice. What path will he take?
From the start, Sacred Deer grips hard with unsettling imagery, dialogue and a score which chills to the bone. Comparisons will be made to Stanley Kubrick and The Shining, from the music through to Murphy stalking the stark corridors of the hospital like Danny on his trike around the Overlook Hotel. Everyone is slightly off-kilter and not present. Murphy family life revolves around select, isolated locations. Steven and Anna’s sex life involves her pretending to be anaesthetised. It’s difficult viewing but a masterpiece of cinema. Give it a shot…*
Your interpretation of Sacred Deer may well be different to ours, but to say anything further would be to give the game away. Let us know your thoughts below in the comments section…we’d love your interpretation on who Martin actually is…(we’ll let you know ours!)
Watch it for: A stunning piece of filmmaking, however unsettling it is
Watch out for: Steven’s selection. Bloody hell
9/10 awkward spaghetti dinners
*a bad choice of wording