THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (2017)

Studio:       A24
Director:    Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer:       Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
Producer:  Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos
Stars:     Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Alicia Silverstone, Bill Camp

Review Score:

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Summary:

A heart surgeon hiding a tragic secret puts his family in danger when a troubled teenager turns his life upside down.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Cardiologist Steven Murphy performs open-heart surgery with his anesthesiologist Matthew. Afterward, Steven meets with 16-year-old Martin Lang at a diner and gifts the boy with a watch.

Steven goes home to dinner with his wife Anna and children Kim and Bob. Steven has sex with his wife while she pretends to be unconscious from anesthesia.

Martin unexpectedly comes to see Steven at the hospital to show him that he exchanged his watchband. Steven reminds Martin to call first before paying him a visit. Steven introduces Martin to Matthew as a classmate of Kim’s who is interested in becoming a cardiologist.

Steven takes Anna to a medical conference banquet. Anna mentions to a colleague that Steven no longer drinks alcohol.

Steven invites Martin to the house to meet his family. Martin befriends Kim and Bob, and also goes on a walk with Kim. Steven tells Anna that Martin was a patient whose father died.

Martin insists that Steven come to his house for dinner. Steven thinks he sees Martin stalking about the parking garage when he leaves the hospital. After dinner, Martin compels Steven to watch “Groundhog Day” with him and his mother. Martin goes to bed early. Steven grows uncomfortable and leaves when Martin’s mother begins kissing his hands while they are alone.

Steven finds Martin waiting for him in his office when he goes back into work. Martin has Steven perform a physical exam on him. Martin also mentions that his mother is attracted to Steven and that he thinks they would make a great couple.

Steven skips a meeting with Martin at the diner to attend dinner at Matthew’s house. Matthew mentions that he saw Martin hanging around Steven’s car at the hospital the previous day.

Kim tells her father that she received a ride home on Martin’s motorcycle. Steven tells Kim to not see Martin anymore. Steven calls Martin, but Martin merely observes from outside the house.

Bob wakes the next morning to discover he is unable to move his legs. Steven and Anna rush Bob to the hospital, but doctors are unable to determine what is wrong with the boy. Meanwhile, Kim goes on another motorcycle ride with Martin.

When Steven and Anna visit Bob in the hospital the following day, they find Martin in Bob’s room. Martin insists that Steven meet him in the cafeteria. After gifting Steven a Swiss army knife, Martin tells him that just like he killed a member of Martin’s family, Steven now has to murder a member of his own family to balance things out. Martin calmly explains that Steven can choose who dies, but if he doesn’t, Bob, Kim, and Anna will all suffer in four stages: paralysis, starvation, bleeding from the eyes, and finally death. Martin promises that Steven will not die. He also warns that Steven only has a few days to decide before Bob enters stage three.

Steven returns to Bob and learns that the boy now won’t eat. Steven tries force-feeding his son a donut, but Bob refuses it.

Martin and Kim have another rendezvous where they both lament her father. Kim strips to her underwear, but Martin tells her he has to leave. Kim professes her love for Martin.

Steven’s frustration with Bob’s condition grows as further medical tests yield no new information. Steven tells Bob a secret about having ejaculated his father when he was young in an effort to compel Bob to tell the truth. Bob insists that his condition isn’t an act.

Kim collapses during a choir recital. Kim soon joins her brother in the hospital and also refuses to eat.

Steven goes to see Martin at his house. When Martin doesn’t open the door, Steven makes threats from outside.

Steven reveals that Martin’s father Jonathan died on his operating table when he tells Anna how Martin threatened their family. Anna asks if Steven was drunk during that surgery, but he doesn’t directly answer her question. Steven adds that he knew Martin had psychological issues, but didn’t realize the boy was dangerous. He also confesses that he had been meeting Martin regularly at the diner for six months. Anna tells Steven that they cannot go to the police.

Anna visits Kim and Bob at the hospital. Martin calls Kim on her cellphone and compels her to walk to the window, which she is momentarily able to do. Kim insults her mother when Anna forbids her from speaking to Martin again. Anna confiscates Kim’s phone. Kim warns that what happened to her and Bob will soon happen to Anna.

Anna goes to see Martin at his house. Martin claims that Steven has been flirting with his mother. Anna asks why her family has to suffer for something Steven did. Martin responds that it is the only thing he can think of that is close to justice.

Anna meets with Matthew to ask about Jonathan Lang’s operation. Anna gives Matthew a hand job in exchange for Matthew’s admission that Steven was drunk during that surgery.

Bob and Kim are taken home. Anna confronts Steven with a demand that he take action regarding their situation.

The next morning, Steven shows Anna that he has Martin held hostage in their basement. Steven beats Martin when he continues to be cryptic. Martin bites Steven and then himself. Steven threatens to shoot Martin. Martin reminds Steven that his family will still die.

Fully brainwashed, Kim tells Bob that she plans to live with Martin. Kim asks if she can have Bob’s MP3 player when he dies.

Bob crawls to a pair of scissors and cuts his own hair. He then crawls to his father to show him that he did something Steven mentioned earlier. Steven visits with their school’s principal to discuss which of his children is the better student.

At Martin’s request, Anna brings Kim and Bob into the basement to visit Martin. Anna treats Martin’s wounds and kisses his feet. Martin warns Anna that Bob will die soon.

Anna strips naked in bed and pretends to be unconscious, but Steven doesn’t have sex with her. Anna suggests that perhaps they sacrifice Kim or Bob and then have another child.

Kim tells her parents that she wants to be the one who dies. Later, she crawls to Martin in the basement and brings him a cigarette. Kim explains that they can run away together if Martin helps her walk again. Still unable to stand, Kim repeatedly throws things at Martin asking him to try harder.

Steven and Anna discover Kim missing from the house. Martin only says that she is gone. Steven and Anna find Kim down the street crawling on the sidewalk.

Anna lets Martin go. When Steven objects, Anna explains that Martin’s release doesn’t make a difference.

Kim tauntingly asks Anna if she has been afflicted yet. Anna slaps her daughter. Bob begins bleeding from his eyes.

Steven binds, gags, and hoods the other three family members in the living room. He then masks his face, spins in a circle, and randomly fires a rifle until he ends up shooting Bob.

Steven, Anna, and Kim sit in a booth at the diner. Martin enters and sits alone at the counter. Without anyone speaking to each other, the Murphy Family leaves. Kim looks back at Martin on her way out the door.

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Review:

“The Killing of a Sacred Deer” unzips its coat slowly.  The story chooses not to reveal much for quite some time, although a disquieting sense of unease develops straight out of the gate.

The first shot depicts a bloody human heart beating in a torso torn open on an operating table.  Consider it a bold warning from director Yorgos Lanthimos that he demands attention, and he wants an unusual, confrontational sight in your face to instill a specific feeling from the start.  Uncomfortable violin strains accompanying otherwise innocuous interactions between teen boy Martin and heart surgeon Steven provide another early clue that something intangible skews this unusual world strangely.

Martin and Steven have been having personal meetings for some time.  Nothing outwardly out of the ordinary.  It isn’t initially clear how the two of them connect, yet they regularly grab a bite, exchange small gifts, and eventually share dinners at each other’s houses with their respective families.

Then Martin starts coming around unannounced.  He compels Steven to pay him more attention, stalks about the hospital where Steven works, and puts weird whispers into the ear of Steven’s daughter Kim.

What starts as an apparent father figure mentorship morphs into something macabre as Martin exploits a secret that manipulates Steven’s family in a threatening manner.  Steven’s only way out may require murder, except his victim will have to be someone much closer to him than Martin.

“The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” which sounds like a forgotten giallo title, doesn’t take place in an ordinary reality.  Movement occurs at 75% speed, like a slow swim without urgency even though a shark lurks somewhere in surrounding depths.  This muted mood drinks in dreaminess, but the setting isn’t surreal.

People speak clinically, not in vacant monotones, yet still like entranced automatons.  Whether talking about a teen daughter’s recent menstruation or discussing how much hair someone has in his armpits, no amount of matter-of-fact bluntness seems out of line for anyone.  Casual conversations about leather watchbands versus metal ones or parental reminders to water plants compose additional building blocks for bizarre banality.

Fog should be clearing by now regarding what form of feeling the film intends to establish.  “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” patiently tiptoes through a full 50 minutes before entering more typical thriller territory, as it doesn’t aim to entertain in the way its setup might suggest.  The movie doubles as an art piece too, which is where it draws a dividing line between those hypnotized by the unconsciously chilly air and those put off by Yorgos Lanthimos’ auteur ambling.

More literal, logic-minded viewers may stub mental toes wondering how the film’s fiction functions.  How did Martin discover what he knows?  How does Martin pull off his plan?  Answers are unavailable.  Lanthimos’ script, co-written by Efthimis Filippou, roots itself in rules where rationality doesn’t drive motivations, either for the characters or for the movie.  Scenes explore thematic spaces as opposed to purely narrative ones.

When that traditional psychological suspense turn is taken, intrigue really ramps up.  Frustration fills the imagination as fast as Steven’s mind maddens.  Martin moves from awkward outcast to impenetrable enigma, and the inability to see inside his head fuels intellectual tension in tune with the tone.  Barry Keoghan deserves incredible acclaim for his engaging performance as a quietly conflicting personality tugging sympathy with one hand and enmity with the other.

As an exercise in methodically constructed dread, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” is effective and affecting.  However, identifying its purpose beyond being an experiment in unsettled ambiance remains an ambiguous objective.  Substance isn’t in the story; it’s in the texture.  And without such richness enabling onscreen actions, hollow mood alone cannot completely satisfy.

Despite being gripping, emptiness inside individual pieces leaves one wondering what the overall experience is worth.  Peeling back layers reveals a strange obsession with male masturbation, cold interpersonal behaviors, and distant characterizations without emotional attachments.  The movie wants to induce discomfort, and does.  But that sensation only goes so far, because obtuse artistry behind it doesn’t let the impact linger.

Is it enough for a movie to push, pull, and prod, even if you ultimately don’t move anywhere?  “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” possesses the ability to do those first three p’s.  How far it can alter your position past that comes down to personal disposition for dipping in disordered darkness.

Review Score:  55

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