Writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos follows-up his fairly impenetrable film The Lobster with the even more challenging The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Once again, Colin Farrell stars, as Steven Murphy.
He initially appears to have a great life as a successful surgeon and the husband of Anna (Nicole Kidman), living in a luxurious house with their two children. However, he also has a strange secret friendship with 16-year-old Martin (Barry Keoghan) and secrets that are about to send his life out of control.
Part-psychological drama, part-horror, this is far from an easy watch. There is very little explicit seen on-screen but the whole film has a slightly off-kilter, queasy feeling. The actors deliberately deliver their lines in a stilted way and you would be forgiven at times for thinking that Kidman is reprising her Stepford Wives role. Keoghan slight other worldliness is used to good effect and Farrell impresses as the man trying to retain a sense of normality as his life falls apart.
Not knowing much about Greek mythology, and caring about it even less, I think I have missed a lot of references that would have enhanced my experience of the film. It is one that kept me intrigued throughout without feeling totally satisfied, though it did not fall apart in the last act in the way that Lanthimos’ last film did.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10