By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Barry Keoghan, Bill Camp and Alicia Silverstone.
Rating: Very Good
Academy Award Director Nominee Yorgos Lanthimos who brought us last year´s “The Lobster” works again with Colin Farrell in “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” and again he delivers very good and intense results.
The movie tells the story of Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) a successful surgeon who enjoys his life with his wife Anna (Nicole Kidman) and his two children Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and Bob (Sunny Suljic).
Steven has a strong relationship with a teenage boy named Martin (Barry Keoghan) who he will eventually introduce to his family.
Everything will change for Steven when he begins to notice Martin´s strange behavior and begins to torment his family with a serious of events, which will involve a sacrifice.
Now Steven will have to play a game of cat and mouse with Martin that will involve in making the proper choices that will drive Steven to a downward spiral.
One of the things that really worked in “The Killing of A Sacred Deer” was the originality of the film itself.
Yorgos Lanthimos again wrote a brilliant screenplay with unique characters. Like in “The Lobster” it was very clear that Lanthimos did a lot of research, specially in dealing with issues that have to do with psyche of people and how you are able to manipulate people.
His direction was very sharp and the performances by Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman were top of the notch. The one who I was very impressed with his performance was Barry Keoghan, who played Martin in the film. He is terrifying and you believe his performance from the beginning to the end of the film.
The cinematography by Thimios Bakatakis was really good. The use of the long shots and cranes that he used for this film work and create that tension of the movie and you are in that space with the characters.
I could tell that Lanthimos had influences of movies like “The Shining” and “Funny Games” since both movies deal with insanity and the limits of how far a person can go in order to reach their goal or goals.
The only problem that I observed in “The Killing Of A Sacred Deer” that I observed was the timing and the pacing of the film. I believe that the movie with a shorter length would have worked as well but it didn´t bother me but for some people I could see that this could be a problem.
Yorgos Lanthimos´s film have the tendency to be slow paced but they are engaging and he is a filmmaker that you are not going to feel any indifference towards his work.
Lanthimos made another winner with “The Killing of A Sacred Deer” and it really payed off.
Before you watched this film I strongly suggest to watch “The Lobster” first so you can understand Yorgos Lanthimo`s style in filmmaking. Although both of his films are completely different but at the same time they both have some similarities.
With that being said “The Killing of A Sacred Deer” is one frightening thriller and one of the best movies of this year.