The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Colin Farrell reunites with his Lobster director to play a man whose placid domestic life and marriage to Anna (Nicole Kidman), is slowly disrupted by the demands of a teenage stalker who wields eerie power.
"Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart when the behaviour of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister." (Cannes Film Festival)
- Director:
- Yorgos Lanthimos ('The Lobster', 'Dogtooth', 'Alps')
- Writer:
- Yorgos LanthimosEfthymis Filippou
- Cast:
- Colin FarrellNicole KidmanBarry KeoghanRaffey CassidyAlicia SilverstoneBill CampSunny SuljicDenise Dal Vera
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Aaron Yap
flicksThe surgically controlled madness of Yorgos Lanthimos’ method can be punishing. Over the last few years, the Greek auteur has rapidly established himself as a meticulous modulator of corrosively absurd scenarios. Squirmy and side-splitting in equal measure, his last film (The Lobster) imagined a dystopian future where single people unable to find soul mates are turned into animals. This singularly demented vision carries through to The Killing of a Sacred Deer, a film that isn’t as conceptually daring, but no less confrontational, perplexing and deliberate. If Kubrick ever wanted to skewer and roast suburban complacency via tragic Greek mythos and eye-for-an-eye stalker-revenge tropes, it’s possible that might’ve ended up something like this.
Flicks, Luke Buckmaster
flicksWill somebody please whack me on the head with a bible, or a large book about Greek mythology? Paying a person to do this would probably be cheaper – and certainly more time efficient – than sitting through another heavy-handed, metaphor-clogged drama, populated by characters who are enfeebled because they exist purely in service of a Bigger Message.
Review: The Killing of a Sacred Deer
This movie is dark. My word is it dark. Yorgos Lanthimos is known for his dark and twisted tales (Dogtooth, The Lobster) and this is a stellar instalment to his directing collection. Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman (who is having a hell of a 2017) are outstanding but the star is Barry Keoghan who is enthralling and disturbing. If you like dark and grim -...
Arthouse cinematic catnip.
Cards on the table: I love, love, loved Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster, and Colin Farrell in it, so the pair’s reunion here comes with almighty expectations of yet more quirky, surreal, comic, tragic, dramatic surrealism. All of those plus a large dollop of deeply disturbing, make this a dark, dark comedy, with a top-notch cast, that conjures up Kubrick in...
Vulture
pressTo see an unfettered nightmare like this from such an idiosyncratic director feels like a cruel treat, and a welcome stylistic stretch.
Variety
pressAs allegories of extreme discomfort go, this one is masterfully orchestrated.
Time Out
pressThere's precious little warm blood pumping through this beautifully crafted but clinical film.
The Guardian
pressAs in all his best work, Lanthimos is brilliant at summoning up a whole created world and immersing us in it. But its weirdness has a double meaning: it has a stylised element of absurdism and it is also a plausible expression of denial.
Stuff
pressAt once almost surgically precise and gleefully messy, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is certainly not a film you can easily forget – and nor should you wish to.
Screen Daily
pressThis is a ruthlessly controlled drama that achieves its powerful effect by holding back when its dramatic content is most intense.
Metro Magazine
pressThis is not, in fact, a happy film. But it reinforces my sense that Lanthimos is one of the most original voices in today’s cinema.
Little White Lies
pressThe drained personalities of the characters serve to relieve the film of all dramatic tension.
Hollywood Reporter
pressThe impressive rigour of its craft, the skillfully subdued intensity of the acting, and the startling originality of the story will make it unmissable for anyone who cares about bold filmmaking.
Flicks, Aaron Yap
flicksThe surgically controlled madness of Yorgos Lanthimos’ method can be punishing. Over the last few years, the Greek auteur has rapidly established himself as a meticulous modulator of corrosively absurd scenarios. Squirmy and side-splitting in equal measure, his last film (The Lobster) imagined a dystopian future where single people unable to find soul mates are turned into animals. This singularly demented vision carries through to The Killing of a Sacred Deer, a film that isn’t as conceptually daring, but no less confrontational, perplexing and deliberate. If Kubrick ever wanted to skewer and roast suburban complacency via tragic Greek mythos and eye-for-an-eye stalker-revenge tropes, it’s possible that might’ve ended up something like this.
Flicks, Luke Buckmaster
flicksWill somebody please whack me on the head with a bible, or a large book about Greek mythology? Paying a person to do this would probably be cheaper – and certainly more time efficient – than sitting through another heavy-handed, metaphor-clogged drama, populated by characters who are enfeebled because they exist purely in service of a Bigger Message.
Vulture
pressTo see an unfettered nightmare like this from such an idiosyncratic director feels like a cruel treat, and a welcome stylistic stretch.
Variety
pressAs allegories of extreme discomfort go, this one is masterfully orchestrated.
Time Out
pressThere's precious little warm blood pumping through this beautifully crafted but clinical film.
The Guardian
pressAs in all his best work, Lanthimos is brilliant at summoning up a whole created world and immersing us in it. But its weirdness has a double meaning: it has a stylised element of absurdism and it is also a plausible expression of denial.
Stuff
pressAt once almost surgically precise and gleefully messy, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is certainly not a film you can easily forget – and nor should you wish to.
Screen Daily
pressThis is a ruthlessly controlled drama that achieves its powerful effect by holding back when its dramatic content is most intense.
Metro Magazine
pressThis is not, in fact, a happy film. But it reinforces my sense that Lanthimos is one of the most original voices in today’s cinema.
Little White Lies
pressThe drained personalities of the characters serve to relieve the film of all dramatic tension.
Hollywood Reporter
pressThe impressive rigour of its craft, the skillfully subdued intensity of the acting, and the startling originality of the story will make it unmissable for anyone who cares about bold filmmaking.
Review: The Killing of a Sacred Deer
This movie is dark. My word is it dark. Yorgos Lanthimos is known for his dark and twisted tales (Dogtooth, The Lobster) and this is a stellar instalment to his directing collection. Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman (who is having a hell of a 2017) are outstanding but the star is Barry Keoghan who is enthralling and disturbing. If you like dark and grim...
Arthouse cinematic catnip.
Cards on the table: I love, love, loved Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster, and Colin Farrell in it, so the pair’s reunion here comes with almighty expectations of yet more quirky, surreal, comic, tragic, dramatic surrealism. All of those plus a large dollop of deeply disturbing, make this a dark, dark comedy, with a top-notch cast, that conjures up Kubrick...
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