The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
I have not seen The Lobster; I have not seen Dogtooth. The off-kilter world of The Killing of a Sacred Deer served as my complete introduction to the work of Yorgos Lanthimos, and to say I was hesitant would be an understatement. Nicole Kidman has called this one of her strangest projects yet, and I sat through Strangerland. I had read the spoiler-free reviews that critiqued Lanthimos' employment of a singular acting style, wherein every character is emotionless and near-robotic, and that the allegories were a little far reaching with too little grounding. I think that there is merit to those ideas - and would have to have more experience with the Lanthimos canon to make my own judgement - but on a personal level, this movie really clicked.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer, a reference to the myth of Iphigenia which I was in no way familiar with but that does illuminate a whole lot, starts off with an extended shot of close up open heart surgery set to a near-deafening operatic soundtrack. It's a kind of litmus test for weird movie fare - my sister looked at me with her hand over her mouth. The movie peppers them through: anecdotes about parental masturbation; roleplaying unconsciousness in the bedroom; adult thumb sucking; flirting with infant mortality...there are elements of it that set out to shock for shock's sake, but thankfully there was a purposefulness to it that didn't make me want to stab myself in the eye a la mother!.
In the film, a stone-faced Colin Farrell finds himself having to choose between his family when the son (played excellently by Barry Keoghan) of a dead patient worms his way into their lives and people start getting sick. You don't need to be familiar with the Greek mythos to pick up on the deification and the metaphorical levels presented, but it does make things clearer in retrospect. If you want clear explanations as to why things are happening, you'll hate it - everyone I saw it with detested the movie. I really enjoyed it.
I am not weary from Lanthimos' directorial choices, having not seen his other movies, and I found the distorted speech and lack of emotion to signify a slight removal from our realm. It made the more fantastical and allegorical elements easier to accept. It also felt exceptionally transactional, which was very effective in the context of the movie - Liz Baessler explains this more completely here. I also found the soundtrack, while occasionally off in its mixing (when it would drown out dialogue mid sentence), to be a real strong point of the movie. There would be something gripping about even the most mundane scenes, paired with opera or screeching violins some angelic choir.
The strengths of the movie, as well as the progression of the more literal story, stop it from feeling like the gratuitous symbolism that wore me so heavily in mother! and felt more reminiscent of Michael Haneke's Funny Games (mentioned briefly in a post about my favourite horror). It shares a similar focus on unsettling the audience and defying expectations about crafting a satisfying story. I appreciate the room for interpretation.
I am no movie snob. I think if the four people I saw this movie with hated it, it's probably not the strongest movie and I can't recommend it wholeheartedly. If you've got a fairly high tolerance for weirdness and you like psychological horror, particularly of the more abstract variety, I thought this was an extremely solid movie well worth exploring. It veers on shock for shock's sake, and there are times when the story progresses strangely, but it ended up feeling to me like a complete and effective movie. I want to leave a movie eager to talk about it and explore more elements! Movies should evoke an emotion, and that was true for all of us (even if for my sister, that emotion was anger and a bit of disgust).
Rating: 8.5/10
The Killing of a Sacred Deer, a reference to the myth of Iphigenia which I was in no way familiar with but that does illuminate a whole lot, starts off with an extended shot of close up open heart surgery set to a near-deafening operatic soundtrack. It's a kind of litmus test for weird movie fare - my sister looked at me with her hand over her mouth. The movie peppers them through: anecdotes about parental masturbation; roleplaying unconsciousness in the bedroom; adult thumb sucking; flirting with infant mortality...there are elements of it that set out to shock for shock's sake, but thankfully there was a purposefulness to it that didn't make me want to stab myself in the eye a la mother!.
In the film, a stone-faced Colin Farrell finds himself having to choose between his family when the son (played excellently by Barry Keoghan) of a dead patient worms his way into their lives and people start getting sick. You don't need to be familiar with the Greek mythos to pick up on the deification and the metaphorical levels presented, but it does make things clearer in retrospect. If you want clear explanations as to why things are happening, you'll hate it - everyone I saw it with detested the movie. I really enjoyed it.
I am not weary from Lanthimos' directorial choices, having not seen his other movies, and I found the distorted speech and lack of emotion to signify a slight removal from our realm. It made the more fantastical and allegorical elements easier to accept. It also felt exceptionally transactional, which was very effective in the context of the movie - Liz Baessler explains this more completely here. I also found the soundtrack, while occasionally off in its mixing (when it would drown out dialogue mid sentence), to be a real strong point of the movie. There would be something gripping about even the most mundane scenes, paired with opera or screeching violins some angelic choir.
The strengths of the movie, as well as the progression of the more literal story, stop it from feeling like the gratuitous symbolism that wore me so heavily in mother! and felt more reminiscent of Michael Haneke's Funny Games (mentioned briefly in a post about my favourite horror). It shares a similar focus on unsettling the audience and defying expectations about crafting a satisfying story. I appreciate the room for interpretation.
I am no movie snob. I think if the four people I saw this movie with hated it, it's probably not the strongest movie and I can't recommend it wholeheartedly. If you've got a fairly high tolerance for weirdness and you like psychological horror, particularly of the more abstract variety, I thought this was an extremely solid movie well worth exploring. It veers on shock for shock's sake, and there are times when the story progresses strangely, but it ended up feeling to me like a complete and effective movie. I want to leave a movie eager to talk about it and explore more elements! Movies should evoke an emotion, and that was true for all of us (even if for my sister, that emotion was anger and a bit of disgust).
Rating: 8.5/10
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