The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Cert: 16; Now showing Should this Cannes-winning psychological chiller from Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos gain some purchase with audiences, there’s every chance that inventive Halloween revellers may dress up as the character of Martin some day. So eerie is his portrayal of a troubled teen fixated on the family of his mentor that the snake-eyed Dublin actor Barry Keoghan may be at risk of becoming a fright-night icon.
Lanthimos retains the off-kilter energies of The Lobster (2015) and reunites with that film’s star, Colin Farrell. Farrell is cardiovascular surgeon Steven Murphy who lives an orderly, sterile suburban life with wife Anna (Nicole Kidman) and their two pre-teen children.
Martin is quite a cat to place among these pigeons. Without his family’s knowledge, Steven has taken Martin under his wing, providing him with company and fraternal care.
From the very initial shots of The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, there is just something a tad “off ” about Martin. He begins to cross Murphy-family thresholds after being finally introduced to Anna and the children. Vampiric agendas flash under a polite facade.
That feeling of predatory stealth drips brilliantly from every pore of Keoghan and should now usher the young actor into higher tiers of notoriety and possibly even awards. Fellow Dub Farrell plays up both the weirdness of Lanthimos’s screenplay and the robotic vulnerability of his character’s patriarchy. Kidman continues a superb run of form. The ghosts of Kubrick infect the cinematography, meanwhile.
Captivating as this darkly hypnotic saga unquestionably is, be warned that Lanthimos films can be too self-indulgent and unorthodox for some.