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The Killing of a Sacred Deer

  • 2017
  • R
  • 2h 1m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
204K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,292
88
Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, and Barry Keoghan in The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Trailer for The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Play trailer1:57
5 Videos
99+ Photos
Suspense MysteryDramaHorrorMysteryThriller

Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

  • Director
    • Yorgos Lanthimos
  • Writers
    • Yorgos Lanthimos
    • Efthimis Filippou
  • Stars
    • Barry G. Bernson
    • Herb Caillouet
    • Bill Camp
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    204K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,292
    88
    • Director
      • Yorgos Lanthimos
    • Writers
      • Yorgos Lanthimos
      • Efthimis Filippou
    • Stars
      • Barry G. Bernson
      • Herb Caillouet
      • Bill Camp
    • 1.2KUser reviews
    • 415Critic reviews
    • 73Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 7 wins & 53 nominations total

    Videos5

    The Killing of a Sacred Deer
    Trailer 1:57
    The Killing of a Sacred Deer
    "Playdate" Trailer
    Trailer 1:10
    "Playdate" Trailer
    "Playdate" Trailer
    Trailer 1:10
    "Playdate" Trailer
    Teaser Trailer
    Trailer 1:26
    Teaser Trailer
    A Guide to the Films of Yorgos Lanthimos
    Clip 1:51
    A Guide to the Films of Yorgos Lanthimos
    The Killing Of A Sacred Deer: You'd make a great couple (French Subtitled)
    Clip 1:56
    The Killing Of A Sacred Deer: You'd make a great couple (French Subtitled)

    Photos357

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    Top cast67

    Edit
    Barry G. Bernson
    • Dr. Larry Banks
    • (as Barry Bernson)
    Herb Caillouet
    • Ed Thompson (Hospital Director)
    Bill Camp
    Bill Camp
    • Matthew Williams
    Raffey Cassidy
    Raffey Cassidy
    • Kim Murphy
    Denise Dal Vera
    Denise Dal Vera
    • Mary Williams
    Colin Farrell
    Colin Farrell
    • Steven Murphy
    Barry Keoghan
    Barry Keoghan
    • Martin
    Nicole Kidman
    Nicole Kidman
    • Anna Murphy
    Drew Logan
    • Principal
    Alicia Silverstone
    Alicia Silverstone
    • Martin's Mother
    Sunny Suljic
    Sunny Suljic
    • Bob Murphy
    Michael Trester
    • Elderly Man
    Ming Wang
    Ming Wang
    • Doctor (Abdominal)
    Dylan Keith Adams
    • Doctor at Conference and Event Dinner
    • (uncredited)
    Mike Ancas
    Mike Ancas
    • Bunraku Puppeteer
    • (uncredited)
    Michael Lee Bailey
    • Conference Guest
    • (uncredited)
    Denise Barone
    • Medical Conference Attendee
    • (uncredited)
    Lea Hutton Beasmore
    Lea Hutton Beasmore
    • Conference Guest
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Yorgos Lanthimos
    • Writers
      • Yorgos Lanthimos
      • Efthimis Filippou
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews1.2K

    7.0204.3K
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    Featured reviews

    8SeanDTheFilmMaker

    Diiiiiiiiistuuuuuurbbbbbiiiing

    They have you terrified at what was going to come out of someones mouth in just about every scene. I dont know if I liked it or hated it. I appreciated they made Me squirm for a couple hours. But now I think I need to wash it down with like, i dont know, a disney movie lol or something. The people, every last one of them are seriously messed up in the head. Brace yourself to be pushed in the incredibly uncomfortable zone. Should have a warning, "written by some one with psycological issues"
    7Gregor_81

    Perfectly Bizarre for good reasons.

    It's not "weird" just to be weird, It's trying to show us something discomforting, that conventional movies CAN'T.

    While The Killing Of a Sacred Deer will be dismissed by the mainstream, for it's very unconventional acting, pacing, and plot, for other's it offers a discomforting conversation on the dark reality of nature and justice. You aren't supposed to ENJOY it, you are supposed to appreciate it.

    The intentionally cold and flat reactions from it's characters will turn many off, but give insight into empathy and trust. The subtraction and skewing of emotion allows us to get a closer look at ourselves and our expectations for coping with threats and loss. It's maddening and incredibly uncomfortable to watch, but that is it's aim and success. You have to stop wanting the movie to be what you want it to be, and start wondering why it is the way it is, if you want to take something away from it.

    While the movie doesn't meet it's impact potential by missing some opportunities for heavier moments and more character development, it is still fascinating, challenging, and rewarding for an open mind.

    For people that appreciate brain teasers like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mulholland Drive, Borgman, Under The Skin, and Sleeping Beauty.
    5Cineanalyst

    Iphigenia in Aulis

    What a strange filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is. Had I not already seen "The Lobster" (2015) (and have since seen two of his earlier Greek productions), I probably would've been completely taken aback by this one, "The Killing of a Sacred Deer." Like its predecessor, its characters seem to occupy some alternate reality entirely dominated by egocentrism, deviant sex and magical retaliatory justice. Again, the acting is intentionally stilted, and there seem to be archaic literary references. I found the eye-for-an-eye pun of "The Lobster" amusing, but the source of Ancient-to-Classical Greek mythology here is quite a treat for me. At university, I took a class, not unlike the daughter in this movie, that included reading the play "Iphigenia in Aulis" by Euripides and, then, viewing the 1977 film adaptation "Iphigenia" directed by Mihalis Kakogiannis. Unfortunately, the result in "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is rather muddled.

    In the Greek myth, King Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia, at the behest of the goddess Artemis to allow him and his troops to proceed on the warpath to fight the Trojans. In some versions, Iphigenia is replaced by a deer, hence the title of this movie. The reason I don't think the effects work as well here as they did in "The Lobster" is because whereas that movie took human shortcomings to absurd extremes, this one takes what was already by modern standards an absurd myth and attempts to make it modern and more ordinary. Gods are dead and replaced by doctors, and if there is a god, apparently, he's a pockmarked teenager seeking revenge for his dead father. I suppose a surgeon's wife role playing during sex as a patient under general anesthesia and a father recalling to his son the time he masturbated his father is more in line with some of the sexual perversity one finds in some Classical Greek literature, though. Yet, overall, it comes across as disjointed. If this were supposed to be a psychological thriller, it seems difficult to lure the spectator in without being able to identify with the characters--whereas this was unnecessary in the black comedy of "The Lobster" (and contradictory to the intent of the Greek movies). But, the stilted acting and illogical premise of the narrative works against identification. I don't think any amount of tense scoring and camera movement from distant perspectives can alleviate that--in a world where nothing is sacred.

    P.S. I still don't quite get the point of "Groundhog Day" (1993) as the film-within-the-film. Is it just because characters in both are prisoners of fate or something? I prefer the self-reflexivity of the director's prior "Dogtooth" (2009) and "Alps" (2011).
    6samjfarrand

    Hard to put into words

    Eh it wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't watch it again. It was very disturbing, unsettling and weird. The film had me guessing at every sec. Perhaps those are elements of a good film? I give it thumbs up for being able to reach within and for making me feel that, but its not the experience I was looking for. Entertaining film but in a way most people might not enjoy.
    7davidmvining

    Oddness, on purpose

    Yes, this movie is weird, and it's entirely intentional.

    Yorgos Lanthimos is an interesting Greek director who's been making English language films for a few years. The Lobster is so dry and oddball that I ended up kind of loving it. The Favourite I ended up loving because it was able to most effectively balance its weirdness with its characters (perhaps because he didn't actually write this script as opposed to everything else he's directed).

    The Killing of A Sacred Deer is the movie he made in between the two listed above, and I think it might be the weakest of the three. Good instead of very good, that is.

    So, let me talk about the weirdness. Everything about this movie feels stilted and mannered. It's off putting, especially at the beginning when you're trying to figure out what on earth the movie actually is. As the story progresses, though, it's easy to see the nefarious undercurrents running through every scene. We spend the first half of the movie trying to figure out where this unease originates from, and the fact that everyone is delivering unnatural dialogue unnaturally heightens the feeling.

    I've seen so many complaints of unnatural dialogue over the years. The one example strongest in my mind is around the movie Juno. The complaints of the mannered way in which characters spoke seemed to be a mask for complaints about the rest of the movie that people couldn't figure out how to express, so they picked on the dialogue. I'm not saying that criticism of such writing is invalid or always misdirected, but that did seem to be the trend I noticed and continue to notice in such criticisms. Just because dialogue isn't reflective of how people actually speak (I like to think of Mamet), that doesn't mean that the dialogue is a failure. Oftentimes, it's that way for a reason.

    Anyway, back to the movie. The sense of unease that permeates the film is great, and I kind of loved the film for about the first three-quarters. However, once the plot began to unravel and resolve, I felt like the movie lost some of its edge. When the main character is presented with his great moral choice (and his blackly comedic method for resolving it), I felt more removed from the choice than I should have. The build up is what works best in this movie, while the resolution just simply doesn't gel as well.

    Still, the movie's an odd but entertaining little thriller.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Heart surgery scenes in the film are real. They were filmed during an operation on a real patient who was undergoing quadruple bypass surgery which Colin Farrell attended.
    • Goofs
      When Martin talks about his father's favorite film, Barry Keoghan's Irish accent can be heard on the word "father"
    • Quotes

      Martin: You know, not long after my dad died, someone told me that I eat spaghetti the exact same way he did. They said what an extraordinary impression this fact had made on them. Look at the boy, look how he eats spaghetti. Exactly the same way his father did. He sticks his fork in. He twirls it around, around, around, around, around. Then he sticks it in his mouth. At that time, I thought I was the only one who ate spaghetti that way. Me and my dad. Later, of course, I found out that everyone eats spaghetti the exact same way. Exact same way, exact same way. This made me very upset. Very upset. Maybe even, um, more upset than when they told me he was dead. My dad.

      Martin: I don't know if what is happening is fair, but it's the only thing I can think of that's close to justice.

    • Connections
      Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Jane Fonda/Nicole Kidman/Colin Farrell/Bryan Cranston/Matt Lucas/Niall Horan (2017)
    • Soundtracks
      Stabat Mater D383: I. Jesus Christus schwebt am Kreuzel (Chor)
      Composed by Franz Schubert

      Performed by Michel Corboz

      Licensed courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd

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    FAQ20

    • How long is The Killing of a Sacred Deer?Powered by Alexa
    • Is it just me or does this movie heavily borrow cinematography style and even incidental music style from 'The Shining'?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 3, 2017 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Ireland
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • A24 (United States)
      • Apple TV Store (MENA Official)
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
    • Also known as
      • El sacrificio del ciervo sagrado
    • Filming locations
      • Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
    • Production companies
      • Element Pictures
      • A24
      • Bord Scannán na hÉireann / The Irish Film Board
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,291,901
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $115,120
      • Oct 22, 2017
    • Gross worldwide
      • $6,938,106
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 1 minute
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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