The Killing of a Sacred Deer
The story follows Steven, a successful heart surgeon who lives a seemingly perfect life with his wife Anna and their two children. However, everything begins to unravel when he befriends Martin, a teenage boy whose father died during an operation performed by Steven. Their relationship grows increasingly unsettling until Martin reveals his true intentions: he demands that Steven make an unthinkable and cruel choice in order to “restore balance.” From that moment, a mysterious and horrifying curse begins to affect Steven’s family in inexplicable ways.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a chilling and symbolically rich film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
The film is crafted with clinical precision. Its atmosphere is sparse and deeply unnerving, amplified by unnatural dialogue and a cold, detached directorial style. Lanthimos strips his characters of emotional warmth to present them as pawns in a larger, perhaps divine or mythic, design. The deliberately flat and alienated performances are not a flaw, but a stylistic choice that enhances the sense of dread.
The film draws directly from Greek tragedy: just as Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to appease the gods, Steven is forced to consider a similar sacrifice to save the rest of his family. Punishment doesn’t come through science or logic, but through a higher, supernatural force that operates with absolute and merciless logic.
Barry Keoghan delivers a disturbingly magnetic performance as Martin, embodying not just vengeance, but fate itself. He’s not merely a vengeful teenager—he feels like a metaphysical presence. Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman offer restrained, icy performances that perfectly match the film’s tone.
Lanthimos refuses to provide answers. Instead, the film multiplies questions: Is there a justice beyond human comprehension? How far are we willing to go to save ourselves? What is the weight of guilt, even when the law finds none?
The Killing of a Sacred Deer is radical cinema that unsettles as much as it fascinates. It’s a hallucinatory and deeply moral journey, rooted in classical themes yet unflinching in its critique of modernity.
