Before anybody watches The Killing of a Sacred Deer, it helps to know that the title is a reference to the story of Agamemnon in Greek mythology. Agamemnon was the King of Mycenea and is credited for uniting the Greek army to sail to Troy to fight in the Trojan War. While preparing for the journey, Agamemnon angered Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, after killing a deer that she deemed sacred and then declaring that he was a better hunter than her. In an act of retribution, Artemis calmed the seas after Agamemnon set sail, stranding the Greek army in the middle of the ocean. She then told Agamemnon that she would only make the winds blow again if he offered his daughter, Iphigenia, as a sacrifice. A life must be exchanged for a life. After facing great pressure from his suffering crew, Agamemnon agrees to make the sacrifice (although in some versions Artemis saves his daughter out of pity in the last seconds) and the wind begins blowing again soon after.

The story of Agamemnon, like many Greek tragedies, pits a flawed, arrogant man up against a vengeful God. These are tales from another era that tell of men who commit both great deeds and misdeeds, and their actions are always followed by enormous consequences. And it is from these ancient tales that Yorgos Lanthimos took inspiration when co-writing and directing The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is the story of Steven Murphy (Colon Farrell), a cardiac surgeon who is secretly meeting with a teenaged boy named Martin (Barry Keoghan) during his breaks. We do not know the exact nature of their relationship, but something sexual is certainly implied, though it will never be confirmed. If I am being honest, even after we discover that the circumstances which bore this odd pairing are much more complex, and later they both will engage- albeit often half-heartedly- in heterosexual pursuits, the suggestion of a past sexual entanglement never fully goes away. 

However, eventually we learn that Martin is the son of a man who died two years ago on Steven’s operating table and that Steven has been communicating with the boy, perhaps out of guilt, for the last six months. Eventually, Steven decides to make Martin’s presence in his life more public, inviting him over to meet the family under the implied pretense that he has found a possible companion for his daughter, who is close to Martin’s age. During the visit, the whole family is charmed by Martin, including Anna, Steven’s wife (Nicole Kidman).

But things eventual turn sour. Martin becomes a bit too intense and starts to cross lines, causing Steven to actively avoid talking to him. Then one day, Steven’s son inexplicably loses all feeling in his legs. The doctors run tests but cannot find anything wrong. When Martin starts coming by the hospital to see Steven’s son, he finally recaptures Steven’s attention. Then Martin hammer drops, delivering a maddening prophecy. Unless Steven chooses one of his family members to die, his wife, son and daughter will all die from an unnatural, incurable illness. A life must be exchanged for a life.

With The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lanthimos presents a story set in modern times that has all the hyperbolic trappings of a Greek Tragedy. This is a tale of a revenge so immense that has been decreed by the Gods and Martin, the lucky devil, gets to be the one to administer it. Steven Murphy finds himself stuck in the role of tragic hero. His occupation as a surgeon gives him status and power that resembles a mythical god, but it also puts him in a position to receive their scorn. As a man of science, he stubbornly finds it incomprehensible that he might in fact be at the mercy of forces greater than himself. And he is running out of time.

On the surface, it is understandable why someone might start watching The Killing of Sacred Deer mistaking this movie for a conventional psychological thriller. After all, there are some big names attached to this project. And though Lanthimos’ name is quickly rising in festival circles, especially after The Lobster, he is not exactly a household name.

But there are some obvious clues at the onset of the film is this is a bit of an oddity. For one thing, the opening shot of a beating heart during surgery looks appallingly real. (Lanthimos got permission to film an actual open-heart surgery and to have Colon Farwell in the room.) This jolt of hyperrealism is followed by a series of stilted, matter-of-fact conversations about watches and whether it is good to have a lot of friends. These are mundane, hollow conversations spoken with nearly no emotion. What we are seeing on screen is not intended to be an exact reflection of the real world. These people and places are sterilized and idiosyncratic. There is uncomfortable dark humour in the film’s early scenes, but if you start to gradually accept the peculiar, detached way the characters converse it gradually becomes part of the film’s uncomfortable charm. And it is ripe in subtext.

Even though this film stars Farrell and Kidman in prominent roles, the most memorable performance is from Barry Keoghan. As Martin, Keoghan owns every scene he appears in, delivering his sobering dialogue with a creepy charisma, like an Eddie Haskell from Hell. What is even more remarkable is that Keogham was in his mid-twenties at the time of filming, though he looks completely credible when he says he is sixteen. Martin is a horror villain to remember, even if the amount of responsibility he bares for the Murphy family’s dire situation is never established.

Although I have listed The Killing of a Sacred Deer as an Oddity to help mitigate pre-viewing expectations, I also acknowledge that it is kin to those rare films that have helped to establish a clear line between a horror film and what is often refer to as “adult horror”, like Lars von Trier’s Antichrist or Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In. The climax of this film is even, perhaps intentionally, reminiscent of Michael Haneke’s adult horror classic, Funny Games. Lanthimos is a master of taking the absurdist logic to extremes. In The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lanthimos proves that when the absurd enters a suburban setting that looks familiar and relatable, the results can be twistedly terrifying.

Lanthimos uses The Killing of a Sacred Deer as a vehicle for clever middle-class social critiques about the emptiness of consumerist pursuits and how sexually deviant behaviour often lurks in the shadows. There is a lot here to chew on. But when you really get down to it, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is mostly about the inevitable consequences that come when someone acts incompetently in their arrogance and the immensity of the penance needed to find atonement. After all, if the gods alone truly control our fates, then we best behave in a manner humble enough to keep ourselves in their good graces.