Dr. Steven Murphy must eventually face his past when a teenage boy named Martin who you had taken under his wing begins to act very strangely once he meets his family.
I had heard this was a bit of a strange film and a tough one to watch. I can confirm that is very true but I thought I would catch up considering Yorgos Lanthimos is very much around with The Favourite which I enjoyed, as well as The Lobster. So I thought I would eventually watch The Killing of a Sacred Deer. I did not enjoy this one though, but I guess the subject matter is a little tough to say you enjoyed really. But it was certainly lacking something those other two films have.
Ultimately this film is about sacrifice and maybe even karma in terms of if you do something wrong it will eventually catch up with you and force you into truly horrific decisions. That is certainly what happens to Steven. He has been hiding from the past and even lying about it to his wife Anna. I guess that didn't help his situation.
Not long after Martin has met his children Kim and Bob they go through stages of illness towards death. But medically nothing is at the cause for this happening, which makes it all very strange and suspicious. Somehow Martin has done this but how? It does take some rather strange twists and turns but it really does make you think and wonder if you do something horrendous, then eventually something horrendous will happen to you or those in your life.
That is the way I interpreted this film anyway, I might have missed some of the points but that is what I saw. It is a tough watch because of what happens to his children and then the ending is rather brutal really. Especially that final haunting scene!
Performance wise though I thought Barry Keoghan was very good and haunting as Martin. A difficult character to play but he managed to get the creepy nature across very well. Colin Farrell always manages to pull out a different performance and I thought he was good in this film, I feel I have to mention his beard as well because it looked amazing! Nicole Kidman didn't get the best of lines and moments in the film, but I guess it was because the focus was on Steven and not her character Anna. She is always reliable though to be good support. Sunny Suljic for such a young Actor certainly managed to steal some scenes. Raffey Cassidy was impressive as well.
I guess overall I didn't really like this film because it was a difficult watch from start to finish. It has a very weird manner to it from the start and that takes some getting used to, it dares to be something totally different which I certainly respect. This one just wasn't fully for me in terms of the story, good acting performances throughout.
