The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Honestly I don't recall this film at all. Looking it up at its widest release it was in only 238 theaters and grossed only $2,291,901.

The title alone would have been enough for me pass the film by, thinking it must be about spiritual native-Americans or some similar Rousseau fantasy.

I hated it, too. I wanted to walk out but since I only went to two other movies this year, I stayed in my seat.

I thought the two young actors were good - the girl and the boy. But boy, that revenge-boy was very annoying.

Did you recognize the actress from Clueless?

I guess it wasn't that bad. It tried to be different and artistic, but I hated it when I watch watching it.

I started a thread that got zero responses. Colin and Nicole have made some stinkers but this one is the worst. If a script makes you puke you probably shouldn’t make it. Reminded me of a better made Mother! But still a terrible movie.

Bump the thread in the morning. Maybe some DL people in the UK/Europe saw it.

It's not doing well at the box office. Both Colin and Nicole have lost their big box office attraction.

It was boring as shit

That movie is too "weird" for the masses and I do not think it opened in many theaters at all.

I regretfully rented at Amazon.

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

The climatic scene where Farrell is blindfolded spinning around in a circle with a shotgun to shoot one of his blindfolded family members made me laugh out loud.

This film was beyond annoying. It's tied with A Ghost Story for films that make me want to kick a puppy.

I was hoping Colin would kill himself but I guess that wasn’t an option.

I didn’t enjoy it. The allegory was very heavy-handed and non-sensical at the same time. Weird. The magical kid who demanded revenge was very irritating. I wanted them all to kill him and have done with it.

The title refers to Agamemnon, who killed some sacred deer in the Iliad. The godess Artemis was angry and stilled the winds so that his fleet couldn’t sail unless he killed his daughter, Iphigenia.

Yes that kid was very annoying. He did an excellent impression of an annoying kid, though. Do you think he was kind of acting like he has Asperger's?

Nicole looks good in the OP’s pic. Darker hair and brows suit her.

I completely hated it, which was surprising, because I LOVED the director’s previous films, “Dogtooth”, “Alps”, and “The Lobster”. It was just relentlessly unpleasant, with no point. Hope he rebounds with his next one - it’s with Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, and Rachel Weisz.

I can't stand anything Nicole Kidman is in

A Ghost Story and Killing are similar in tone and obtuseness. But Ghost is my best of year and Killing among most disappointing. Go figure.

Saw it at a film festival. Sold out for both performances. Audiences clapped at the end.

....

Yeah I wasn't impressed either. The kid was so annoying that it distracted me, was he supposed to be "special"? And the spinning shotgun was funny. I thought his daughter was kind of a bitch, I would have chosen the son to keep alive.

I loved one critic saying that she was pissed [italic]any[/italic] of those people got to live by the end.

R20 Whoever that critic is, I love them.

That kid was awful, so annoying

...or is it whomever?

Which ever - fuck that movie

This thing got zero promotion. The )relatively) ‘art house’ theater near me was playing it. I was surprised I hadn’t heard a word about it, considering Kidman and Farrell.

I give Kidman credit for doing weird stuff. I have liked her in almost everything I’ve seen her in.

Wish she’d go back to dark ginger and let her real set through. She’s one of my favorite actresses.

Did you see "Fur" with Robert Downey Jr?

"Birth" was a weird one that was good.

[quote]Both Colin and Nicole have lost their big box office attraction

Except that Colin never had it

If I’m not mistaken Colin had a few no 1 grossing of the week movies early in his career.

I like Nicole too ( they both had 2 art house bombs together this year)but Sacred is beyond weird Not only does a father kill his son with a gun no one seems to care.

I give Farrell and Kidman points for trying something different. However Lanthimos doesn't make likable films and his distanciation approach makes it difficult to care.

This movie was darker and not as amusing as The Lobster tried to be, if you could call that film amusing. Still Lanthimos is 10x more interesting a writer and director than 95% of the rest out there making films for the masses.

He's next scheduled to do an Oliver North biopic for Amazon, with Farrell again in the lead. I'm curious to see how that will turn out.

It was strange and unsatisfying. I wouldn't say awful but it was bad. I watched "The Beguiled" the day before, they were much better in that one.

Oh, Deer.

I liked the first hour, but then it descended into poorly written and paced pretentious boredom.

The Colin Farrell jerkoff speech was very pretty shocking for a well-known movie actor to perform.

So... I have questions and doubts.

Entering SPOILERS TERRITORY

1. Of course, the kid is a psycho and what the doctor and his family go through is unbearable. But... as a spectator, and keeping in mind it is only a movie. No one died for real. Was there a character you were hoping would make it more than others ? I felt sorry for the little boy who had suffered longer than anyone. Who was afraid his father would choose him for the sacrifice.

Now for the doubts.

2. The father shot three times, missing his daughter, his wife, and then, finally catching his son. We know he had less patience for the boy and seemed to like the girl better. Do you think uncounsciously he chose ?

3. The arrogant surgeon blames the anasthesist. The evil boy and the warmer, more human (But still exploitive )anasthesist blame the surgeon. The wife, angry with and doubting her husband, believes the latter two. It still doesn't prove he is guilty. Do you believe he was guilty ? Maybe it is why in the first place he acted a bit as a father figure to the annoying teenager ?

4. At the end, the grieving family is at the snack bar, but upon seeing their tormentor, they leave and throw him a disgusted stare. Does the daughter ends her scowl with a right smile ? She still believes he could love her ?

5. Had the surgeon responded to the annoying teenager's mother flirting, or keep on showing the boy interest, do you think he would have kept on with his project of vengeance ? Or was he just aiming at making him uncomfortable and then start with the unescapable vengeance ?

I thought Farrell, Kidman and Keogh were amazing and the film was thrilling, but I wouldn't watch it again.

typical ghastly Nicole kidman effort. bitch is expert at picking flops

Nicole Kidman hasn't been in a good movie for donkey years.

The last movie I enjoyed with her was The Others.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer EXPLAINED: Theme and Character Analysis (with SPOILERS)

I like both Colin and Nicole. Nicole IS fearless when it comes to the roles she takes, not afraid to appear unlikable or nuts. One of my favorites was The Paperboy. Wow.

[quote]The Colin Farrell jerkoff speech was very pretty shocking for a well-known movie actor to perform

I remember the shocked gasps from the audience when it happened.  And the shocked laughter when Steven goes to Martin's house to confront him and shouts to the window, "Do you want me to fuck you" or something along those lines.

[quote]I felt sorry for the little boy who had suffered longer than anyone. Who was afraid his father would choose him for the sacrifice.

I felt bad for him and wished it had been the girl rather than him because of the fact that she would've happily betrayed her family for Martin and was willing her mother to die (asking her if she was feeling all right).

[quote] 2. The father shot three times, missing his daughter, his wife, and then, finally catching his son. We know he had less patience for the boy and seemed to like the girl better. Do you think uncounsciously he chose ?

No. I think it was just dumb, rotten luck.

[quote]3. The arrogant surgeon blames the anasthesist. The evil boy and the warmer, more human (But still exploitive )anasthesist blame the surgeon. The wife, angry with and doubting her husband, believes the latter two. It still doesn't prove he is guilty. Do you believe he was guilty ? Maybe it is why in the first place he acted a bit as a father figure to the annoying teenager ?

I believed he was guilty and his guilt is what drove him to take Martin under his wing. If it was truly the anesthetist's fault he would have never reached out to Martin.

[quote]4. Does the daughter ends her scowl with a right smile ? She still believes he could love her ?

She does give a slight smile and I think in that narrow focus that kids have, that she thinks there's still something there between them.

[quote] 5. Had the surgeon responded to the annoying teenager's mother flirting, or keep on showing the boy interest, do you think he would have kept on with his project of vengeance ? Or was he just aiming at making him uncomfortable and then start with the unescapable vengeance ?

If Steven (Colin) had continued to entertain him Martin would have never put a hex on him. It was only after he began to distance himself from him that he went about "avenging" his father.

[quote]I thought Farrell, Kidman and Keogh were amazing and the film was thrilling, but I wouldn't watch it again.

Like the director's other work "The Lobster" I absolutely loved the film and have watched it a few times.  It's just so off-kilter that it's entertaining.

Wow, thank you for your answers and the discussion, R38. Your comments are interesting and enlighting.

Ah ! I imagine people must have reacted nervously to the daring dialogues, indeed. I think what Steven yells at Martin house intends to be a threat. Something like "Open the door or I'll kick it open and f*ck your mother and you, like you wanted !"

I meant to write "slight" smile. Damn autocorrect ! Yeah, the daughter was ready to betray her family for that weirdo and taunted her brother meanly.

It is strange that they spend a lot of time dwelling on who between the two children deserves to live the most, but the wife is not really considered, until the end.

I just remembered that it is a knife that annoying Martin gives Steven when he announces his family is hexed. It comes across as a courtesy, but giving a knife was also a symbole of ending a friendship in Roman times.

It is strange that this kind of upper-middle class family would eat at the blue collar snack bar.

Finally, the teenager torments the surgeon, forcing him to choose a victim, claiming it is on him. But I have to wonder if Martin had the power all along to influence who the sacrifice would be. The daughter is kind of a girlfriend to him, the mother gave him first care, bowed to him and set him free. The son refused to hug him. Lo and behold the son dies ! In that kind of story, I wonder if there is an impact. Martin won't be ignored !

Thank you R36. I'm going to read this.

Ok, R36. I watched the video. Lots of things I had not thought about. Especially regarding Steven'hands and the dirty surgical gloves at the beginning.

R32, please elaborate on the"jerk off" scene.

is the sacred deer her nose????

Don't get me started on her nose.

its half plastic they say, she has had over ten surgerys on it....wtf???

one good fix shoulda done it bak in the day. I think she fears getting old. thus the f lifts,eyes, cheeks, chin, etc

just sad bout the nose.

R42, I am not R32, but here is what the scene is about.

Steven (Farrell) is in shock and denial about his son being paralyzed, so at one point, he tells the son they'd play a game about who had the bigest secret. He obviously hopes the son will confess to faking the sickness. He procedes to say that at the son's age, he was worried about the quantity he produced masturbating/ejaculating and that to be sure, when his father was drunk/passed out one day, he jerked him off, and the result scared him. The little boy, Bob, doesn't know how to react to the grossly inappropriate anecdote. He doesn't have any secrets like that.

Yeah, the audience doesn't expect the scene at the hospital to go that way. The Steven character, while respectable in appearance sometimes say things that are a bit off.

I also have been bewildered by her nose thru the yrs. its very odd lookin ...and that face girly teen voice of hers. she is 51 !