The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

The renowned heart surgeon Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) is married with Dr. Anna Murphy (Nicole Kidman) with two children, the young teenager Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and the boy Bob (Sunny Suljic) that are their pride and joy. He works with the anesthetist Matthew (Bill Camp) and recently he is dedicating attention to the teenager Martin (Barry Keoghan), whose father died in a surgery. Steven brings Martin to meet his family and the teenager invites him to have dinner at his home with his mother (Alicia Silverstone), who harasses Steven. He rejects and on the next day, Bob gets sick without walking. Steven and Anna bring Bob to the hospital and after a complete checkup, the doctors do not find any problem with the boy. Soon Martin meets Steven and tells that he killed his father; now he has to kill Anna or Kim or Bob; otherwise they will all get sick and die. Who is Martin?

"The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is a weird, intriguing but absolutely disappointing and overrated film. The plot and the performances are cold, without heart, and has scenes absolutely unnecessary, like Anna masturbating Matthew in the car or the cameo of Alicia Silverstone. However, the screenplay holds the attention of the viewer that expects the clarification of the mystery. Unfortunatelly the conclusion is awful without any explanation for what is happening or who Martin is or has done. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Fmovies: What a strange filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is. Had I not already seen "The Lobster" (2015) (and have since seen two of his earlier Greek productions), I probably would've been completely taken aback by this one, "The Killing of a Sacred Deer." Like its predecessor, its characters seem to occupy some alternate reality entirely dominated by egocentrism, deviant sex and magical retaliatory justice. Again, the acting is intentionally stilted, and there seem to be archaic literary references. I found the eye-for-an-eye pun of "The Lobster" amusing, but the source of Ancient-to-Classical Greek mythology here is quite a treat for me. At university, I took a class, not unlike the daughter in this movie, that included reading the play "Iphigenia in Aulis" by Euripides and, then, viewing the 1977 film adaptation "Iphigenia" directed by Mihalis Kakogiannis. Unfortunately, the result in "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is rather muddled.

In the Greek myth, King Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia, at the behest of the goddess Artemis to allow him and his troops to proceed on the warpath to fight the Trojans. In some versions, Iphigenia is replaced by a deer, hence the title of this movie. The reason I don't think the effects work as well here as they did in "The Lobster" is because whereas that movie took human shortcomings to absurd extremes, this one takes what was already by modern standards an absurd myth and attempts to make it modern and more ordinary. Gods are dead and replaced by doctors, and if there is a god, apparently, he's a pockmarked teenager seeking revenge for his dead father. I suppose a surgeon's wife role playing during sex as a patient under general anesthesia and a father recalling to his son the time he masturbated his father is more in line with some of the sexual perversity one finds in some Classical Greek literature, though. Yet, overall, it comes across as disjointed. If this were supposed to be a psychological thriller, it seems difficult to lure the spectator in without being able to identify with the characters--whereas this was unnecessary in the black comedy of "The Lobster" (and contradictory to the intent of the Greek movies). But, the stilted acting and illogical premise of the narrative works against identification. I don't think any amount of tense scoring and camera movement from distant perspectives can alleviate that--in a world where nothing is sacred.

P.S. I still don't quite get the point of "Groundhog Day" (1993) as the film-within-the-film. Is it just because characters in both are prisoners of fate or something? I prefer the self-reflexivity of the director's prior "Dogtooth" (2009) and "Alps" (2011).

This is one of those movies I have nothing nice to say about. The only thing I'll hand this movie is that I don't want to blame the actors/actresses. They've all shown that they have talent and I believe they were all instructed to act in such a robotic and monotone style. This obviously backfired as I couldn't attach myself to their characters because of it but I get the intention. My hope is that they all bounce back soon with other more worthwhile projects.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is filmed in a deliberately cold and sterile way. There are plenty of distant shots when characters are walking down hallways, all the dialogue is delivered without any kind of inflection and the final moments lack any kind of feeling. Again, this wasn't done by accident and I understand that it might just being going over my head. But the trade-off with this style is that it sucks any kind of emotional investment out of the movie. This bleeds over into the characters who are all jerks and terrible people. I wasn't rooting for anyone by the end of the movie. Steven is too arrogant to like; his children and his wife are content to stab each other in the back as long as it suits their best interest. Martin's plan is so ruthless that you can't root for him as the villain (this is also compounded by his complete lack of personality). This is an ugly movie about ugly people in an ugly situation. I get that's the point but if that's the case, why should I enjoy this movie?

The next thing is that this movie has very little plot to speak of. There is the mystery of how Martin is doing this (there is no resolution about that) but otherwise, the only other question posed is answered at the halfway point. There isn't anything else! If you're going to strip any emotional resonance from the movie or refuse to give me anyone to root for, I need an intriguing plot to hold my interest. Sadly, this was just one more thing the movie lacks.

What this movie relies on is the dialogue and that aspect doesn't pick up the slack. Sure, there are some minor exchanges that are interesting but there isn't any deeper meaning revealed through these characters interacting with one another. It often gets repetitive (there are at least a couple of scenes where Steven and Anna lecture the kids about not doing their chores) or downright bizarre (Steven's story of childhood masturbation was icky). It just failed to hold my attention (again the fact its delivered so coldly didn't' help) and it was just something else that was disappointing.

This movie joins A Ghost Story and Mother! In a category of 2017 films that critics adored and I ended up hating. I will say that like those movies, there was a clear vision of what they wanted, and they achieved it. Yorgos Lanthimos had something specific in mind and was more concerned about bringing his vision to life than whether the audience would get it. As much as defenders of this movie would say "well you're not the target audience", I'm open to trying new and different types of movies and I don't need to make concessions to an awful movie because they didn't make it with me in mind. I was repulsed by this movie for much of the running time. My hopes that it would get better when we got further into the plot were deflated like a balloon running out of air. Unless you're a fan of Yorgos Lanthimos' previous work (I haven't seen The Lobster, maybe its good?) or you're dying to see something off-kilter

The Killing of a Sacred Deer fmovies. Yorgos Lanthimos's latest film, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, is well-shot, adeptly acted, intensely written, and beautifully unsettling. An outstanding achievement by any metric. And I never want to see it again.

From the opening shot, the film wears its tone not only on its sleeve, but also on its chest, face, and everywhere else: Its gonna make you uncomfortable. From the haunting score that seems to creep its way into every scene, to the awkward and robotic characters, to the downright scary Martin (played excellently by Barry Keoghan), the movie feels 'off.' We've seen this "seemingly perfect upper- class family has a darkness that tears them apart" type story before, but never so viscerally displayed as it is here.

If the characters' inhuman mannerisms, conversations, and actions aren't unsettling enough, the film also delivers enough on-screen gross outs to hammer home a truly affecting experience. The film is objectively well-shot, and delivers a capable, if slightly subdued plot, while building to a frightening conclusion. It's not a horror movie sort of frightening either, but more of a, "I can't believe I'm about to watch this" feeling.

I know that's a tough sell. The Killing of a sacred Deer is not going to make you feel good. The film is filled with an overarching, all-consuming darkness that lingers even after it's over. Still, it's a truly unique and deeply affecting film that's worth watching, even if only once.

I don't want to write any criticism for the movie. Most good reviews have done it better than me. What I would like to write has to do with basic understanding of a particular kind of movies.

There are movies which are self-explanatory and there are movies like this one. I find it sad that a lot of critics have the words "obtuse, weird, no meaning, garbage, etc ". I am Greek so I am familiar with the context and the generic idea behind the movie but even in other complicated movies (directors like Aronofsky, Bunuel, etc have created movies like this one (and because i want to avoid haters, i am NOT making a comparison between Lanthimos and those guys)), I always, ALWAYS think and read before I judge.

It's one of those movies that you need to think and even by thinking you may still not be able to understand it. You may need to read before passing any judgment. But for me at least this is the beautiful thing with these kind of movies. They educate you. You evolve as a personality because of them. To rephrase it, you may evolve as a personality because of them if you let yourself open. If you baptize the movie as crap just because you found the acting "weird" or "empty" without thinking why the director choose this approach(?), then you have barricaded yourself under the safety of your own little world.

Of course if you believe that a movie is good only if you are able to understand it without the need of any reading, considerable thinking etc. then of course this is not a movie for you and you have excluded yourself from a vast collection of amazing directors and movies but that's just personal preference. There is always a new Saw movie coming along :) !

While The Killing Of a Sacred Deer will be dismissed by the mainstream, for it's very unconventional acting, pacing, and plot, for other's it offers a discomforting conversation on the dark reality of nature and justice. You aren't supposed to ENJOY it, you are supposed to appreciate it.

The intentionally cold and flat reactions from it's characters will turn many off, but give insight into empathy and trust. The subtraction and skewing of emotion allows us to get a closer look at ourselves and our expectations for coping with threats and loss. It's maddening and incredibly uncomfortable to watch, but that is it's aim and success. You have to stop wanting the movie to be what you want it to be, and start wondering why it is the way it is, if you want to take something away from it.

While the movie doesn't meet it's impact potential by missing some opportunities for heavier moments and more character development, it is still fascinating, challenging, and rewarding for an open mind.

For people that appreciate brain teasers like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mulholland Drive, Borgman, Under The Skin, and Sleeping Beauty.