The Killing of a Sacred Deer

I fought this moment off for as long as I could but alas it has finally come; I’m old! I thought the fact that I couldn’t get out of my spaghetti filled (long story) bed until 3 o’clock in the afternoon following a long night of dancing my face off to LCD Soundsystem was just an anomaly. But after turning down a late night party invite from two really cute girls who I met at the second LCD show to simply go home and eat pizza because I’m fat and had to get up early for work the next day, just proves that my days of needing Viagra are probably not that far away. Heck, I may as well start practicing throwing footballs through the large holes of tires right now; gotta get my accuracy up! That’s easily the most ridiculous commercial I’ve ever seen by the way.

But the reason I bring all of this up is because age is still undefeated in this old world we live in and you don’t have to look any further than to Colin Farrell to see what I’m talking about. It wasn’t that long ago when this used to be ageless wonder was making sex tapes with Black Playboy bunnies with regularity but now he’s been relegated to playing gray bearded doctors with a beer bellies. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the groupies he rejects will still be way hotter than anything I’ll ever see in my lifetime but my how the mighty have fallen.

Now having said all of that, getting older and a bit chubbier has seemingly made him a better actor as he’s been on quite a roll for the past decade. I thought his performance in The Lobster was one of the best of his career but he easily tops that in director Yorgos Lanthimos’s follow up to that film in The Killing of a Sacred Deer. I know, I know, it’s a fairly pretentious title but after seeing this odd take on a revenge flick I honestly can’t think of another title that would work.

If you’ve never seen a Lanthimos flick, he has his own unique but pretty accurate view on the modern human condition and this film is no different. In Deer, he puts his focus on the weird and borderline inappropriate relationship that exists between surgeon Steven Murphy (Farrell) and the seemingly obtuse teenager Martin, played by Barry Keoghan in what is sure to be a breakout role for him. It’s just a matter of time before Marvel snags him and immediately ruins his career.

Anyway, you soon learn that the reason these two are always around one another is because Dr. Murphy was the surgeon who was operating on Martin’s dad when he died in the middle of an unnamed procedure. At first, you along with Dr. Murphy, believe it’s because the kid is starving for another father figure in his life but you soon learn that it has nothing to do with that at all; even after one of the film’s funniest and oddest moments involving Martin’s mom, Alicia Silverstone. Martin has been up to something this entire time and it’s not until after he’s been introduced to Dr. Murphy’s beautiful wife (Nicole Kidman) and two kids that he reveals what it is.

Channeling what is a perfect mix of Robert Deniro from the classic film Cape Fear and pretty much any character from the brutal Australian crime flick Animal Kingdom, Keoghan is as calculated of a villain as they come. He somehow unleashes this weird curse on Dr. Murphy’s family that causes them to lose the ability to walk, followed by their refusal to eat and eventually bleeding from their eyes which will ultimately lead to their death. It will slowly start to affect each family member of his and kill them all unless he chooses which of his family members will die first. Then and only then will the curse be lifted as this is Martin’s idea of what he considers to be justice.

Naturally, being a doctor, Murphy doesn’t believe in this weird voodoo but as strange things continue to happen he becomes desperate and begins doing whatever he can to save his family. And what’s most interesting is when his family also begins to believe there’s no alternative outcome and starts subtly and not so subtly doing whatever they can to make sure they survive this ordeal.

This film is a dark statement of how we are not that different from animals when it comes to our innate desires to survive no matter how sophisticated we think we are in our societal status. And how evil can come in the most unsuspecting forms. There is quite a bit of dark humor in this film but mainly it’s just dark as Dr. Murphy is put in the positon that every parent considers to be their worst nightmare. How do you choose between your spouse and one of your kids? And is this curse real? Will I make a decision that I will regret for the rest of my life?

All I can say is that I’ve seen literally a thousand movies over the past decade, so many in fact, that I thought it was impossible to impress me anymore; but this movie had me on the edge of my seat. And the film’s final moments rank right up there with anything you’ve ever seen in a Hitchcock or Kubrick film. This is an instant classic and I give it a rating of TIGHT!