KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

STARS WASTED

Film Review by FIORE

It’s difficult to give credence to a film when the dialogue is written in a juvenile manner and delivered in a stilted style.  No one speaks like the characters in Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film, KILLING OF A SACRED DEER.  Despite having quality actors, the screenplay is surrealistic due to its butchered discourse. 

Colin Farrell plays Dr. Steven Murphy, a successful surgeon, who has a troubled past.  He befriends the son of one of his former patients, Martin, played by Barry Keoghan.  Martin, however has sinister designs for Dr. Murphy and his wife Anna, played by Nicole Kidman.  The film’s script, penned by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou, never reveals the mystic, supernatural powers Martin seems to command.  Nor does it explain how all the main characters escape any consequences for their actions in the film’s conclusion.  Alicia Silverstone makes a cameo appearance as Martin’s mother.

Thimios Bakatakis offers THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER’s only saving grace with excellent cinematography.  He incorporates extreme close up shots, which are too rare in cinema these days.  Sabotaging his endeavors is Editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis, who paces the movie with a dawdling alacrity.  One is therefore forced to suffer through the sequences for a totally unsatisfying conclusion.

It is somewhat concerning that the trend in horror films lately is directed toward incompetent members of the medical profession.  This, more than likely, relates to the slacking of requirements a decade ago, to effectuate increased female and minority representation.

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER opens with one of the grossest scenes imaginable.  It then gives way to an irrational script.  The talents of Farrell and Kidman are wasted.  This one will not satisfy horror, nor thriller fans.