The killing of a sacred deer

 

DIRECTED BY-: 
Yorgos Lanthimos

STARRING-: 

Colin Farrell

Nicole Kidman

Barry Keoghan

YEAR OF RELEASE-: 

2017

PREMISE-: 

Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

My favorite aspect about ’The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ was how brilliantly it established its overall foreboding and mysterious atmosphere. This film deserves to be watched on the biggest screen possible with the best surround sound system because its direction, cinematography, and background score were a pure treat to the senses. Audio-Visually, the film was very reminiscent of 'The Shining', and that kind of treatment and sincerity in direction is only going to prove beneficial for a horror film.

The next positives of the film were its dialogues and performances. Conversations were not on the nose or over the top. Subtlety was mastered in some places and you could sense the exchange of dialogue happening even when no one spoke. The actors further did a great job at effortlessly expressing those conversations and embodying the characters. 

The film also had some hilarious, twisted dark humor in it that I wasn’t really expecting, and it caught me off guard, in a good way. 

THAT BEING SAID, the film is not everyone's cup of tea. It was off-putting and jarring at several places and uncomfortably sexual. Too much of the runtime was wasted away before getting to the crux of the plot. Several questions which the film raised were left unanswered which ultimately damaged the validity, sensibility and logicality of the events of the story. I'm all for ambiguity and symbolism but not at the expense of completely abandoning reason and logic. Throughout the film, there were many scenes or problems which could have been alleviated or avoided altogether if the characters had just used some common sense.

Also, even though in the end it tried to leave an emotional impact on the viewer, the film unfortunately missed the mark because of its lack of humanized, likable, relatable or compelling characters. 'Martin' initially had a lot of potential and intrigue around him but as the narrative progressed, it felt like he had been reduced to a one-note, vengeance-seeking antagonist. 

As a result, I often found myself being more invested in what the overall plot was building up to, rather than caring about the final fate of the central characters. 

RATING -: 5/10