"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."
— Martin
The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a 2017 psychological thriller film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman and Barry Keoghan, with Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Alicia Silverstone, and Bill Camp in supporting roles.
Dr. Steven Murphy (Farrell) is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon with a wife (Kidman) and two children (Cassidy, Suljic) who share an idyllic suburban life. Eventually, Steven crosses paths with a strange, fatherless teenage boy named Martin (Keoghan), who begins getting more and more involved in the Murphys' lives with a personal grudge and mysterious powers that, combined with a resurfaced tragedy, will affect the family irreversibly.
The film's script, which Lanthimos wrote alongside Greek writer Efthymis Filippou, was inspired by Euripides' ancient Greek tragedy Iphigenia in Aulis. The film premiered at the 70th Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2017, and was released in theaters starting on October 20, 2017, with its American distribution handled by A24.
This film contains examples of:
- Abusive Offspring: Apparently an accidental version. When Steven was worried he wasn't ejaculating a "normal" amount, he went to his drunk, sleeping father and jerked him off to check.
- Ambiguous Situation: Who, or what, exactly is Martin? He seems like a normal, if not particularly strange, kid, but he seems to have the ability to put curses on people, turning them off and on at will.
- Would Martin have let Steven and his family continue to live in relative peace if he hadn't snubbed his mother and decidedly spent less time with him? According to Martin, he and Steven had been having their meet ups for months by the time the movies plot began, and Martin was clearly trying to force a father figure out of him during this time, but the curse didn’t take effect until Steven started to pull away from him. That said, Martin also says they both knew the time of retribution would come someday, suggesting that he always intended to curse Steven's family and only decided now was the time when he saw that Steven no longer had any intention of making up for what he’d done.
- While Anna was counted as part of the potential sacrifices, she is never shown to be afflicted by any stages of the curse. The fact that she wasn't is addressed in the movie but never explained.
- The Alcoholic: Steven apparently had a drinking problem that led to him accidentally killing one of his patients, although he denies being at fault.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In the end, Martin gets his way; despite his efforts to evade Martin's prophecy, "balance" is restored by Steven killing one of his children (Bob).
- Best Served Cold: Martin shows no obvious signs of anger toward Steven. On the contrary, he spends a lot of time earnestly trying to develop a relationship with him. Even when describing his plans for revenge, he explains them without any sign of anger or relish and states flatly that they are the only thing he could think of to balance the scales of justice.
- Big Sister Bully: Kim to Bob, in a pretty twisted way. When presented with the idea that their father will have to kill one of them to break the curse, she rubs in his face that their parents prefer her over him, meaning he’s more likely to be sacrificed, and says she’ll get to claim his MP3 player after he dies. It turns into Big Sister Instinct toward the end, however, as she reveals that she does love him and was willing to be sacrificed by their father to save him.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Matthew is apparently Steven's best friend and coworker, but he tried to have an affair with Anna behind Steven's back and later completely blames Steven for the death of Martin's father the exact same way Steven blamed him while selling that information to Anna for a handjob.
- Book Ends: The opening and closing sequences are both soundtracked by haunting classical music.
- Bound and Gagged: At the end, Steven opts to kill a member of the family to restore balance. Since he can't consciously go through with it, part of his process is duct-taping everyone's bodies and mouths.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: As he grows increasingly desperate for the safety of his family, Steven ends up kidnapping Martin, tying him to a chair in his basement, and brutally beating him for answers. It doesn't boot; not only is Martin completely unaffected by the abuse, but Anna ends up freeing him.
- Creepy Child: Martin is this in spades. Everything he does exudes a creepy, unnatural aura.
- Downer Ending: After Bob's eyes begin to bleed, the final stage of the curse that would lead to death, Steven ultimately opts to fulfill the prophecy and allow Martin to get his way by killing Bob.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: The first indication we get that Steven is not the best guy is when he role plays "general anesthesia" with Anna, in which he has sex with her while she pretends that she is sedated. note
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Whether Martin is actually evil is up for debate. Regardless, there is ostensible evidence that he cares for several people in the film.
- He cared sbout his father, with this being the reason he ends up tormenting Steven and his family: to avenge him.
- He appears to genuinely care for his mother, so much so that he wanted her to hook up with Steven if it would make her happy. Steven running off after she attempted to make a move on him is seemingly one of the things that tipped Martin off to finally curse Steven's family, after a months-long grace period following the death of his father at Steven's hands.
- He also may have cared for Kim, but evidently not enough to lift the curse that would eventually kill her.
- Fan Disservice:
- The anesthesiologist demands a handjob from Anna as payment for revealing that Dr. Murphy was drinking on the day of Martin's father's death.
- Anna and Steven's roleplaying, in which she pretends to be a patient under anesthesia.
- Fictional Fan, Real Celebrity: Kim is a fan of Ellie Goulding. She listens to "Explosions" while she's in her bedroom with Martin, and sings "Burn" for him in an eerie moment of foreshadowing both of her crush and the devastating consequences his involvement in her family will have.
- Foreshadowing: A shot panning in towards Bob, just as he begins to get sick, displays a photo of a deer above his head, foreshadowing the ending of the film.
- Four Is Death: The fourth stage of the curse is death.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality:
- At first it appears that Steven is facing Disproportionate Retribution for an innocent mistake committed years ago, and Martin acknowledges that this recourse is not fair, but the reveal that Steven was drunk while operating on Martin's father lessens the sympathy viewers may feel for him. Steven's actions later in the film also evoke some questionable morality, such as kidnapping a teenager and beating him up in his basement.
- Martin isn't a great guy either. He takes retribution for his father's death into his own hands, cursing Steven's innocent family members and forcing him to kill one of them to "balance things out" rather than simply punishing Steven for his crime, essentially justifying it as an eye for an eye situation. He recognizes that it is unfair, but no matter what the other family members do to save themselves or appease him, he doesn’t relent.
- Hope Spot: After Bob's legs lose feeling for the first time, he regains the ability to walk and the adults assume he was lying. Within minutes of leaving, however, he loses the ability to move yet again.
- If You Die, I Call Your Stuff: Kim claims Bob's MP3 player in case he dies.
- Infodump: In a rather one sided conversation between Steven and Martin, Martin lays out pretty much the entire premise of the story, including the stages of the curse, the fact that Steven has to choose one of his family members to kill, and the fact that Martin's father died in surgery.
- It's All About Me: Anna. She cares about her kids to some degree, but she obviously values her own life more than theirs. When she first goes to confront Martin after finding out her husbands role in his fathers death, she asks why she has to suffer for his mistake before asking why her children have to suffer. She also never offers to sacrifice herself to save their kids, telling Steven to sacrifice one because they can just have another, and then makes one last ditch effort to save herself by offering Steven sex. Pretty cold.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Anna calls Steven out for his denial of the situation (for asking her to make mashed potatoes when their kids are dying in the other room) and tells him to do something to put an end to it, Steven goes into a long, sarcastic rant on how they can perform some crazy ritual to break the curse; it may be Steven's fault for Martin cursing the family, but since it is supernatural there is seemingly not much that he can do about it.
- Love at First Note: Though it isn't clear if Martin has any actual feelings for them (and it's implied he doesn't), the first sign of blossoming romance between he and Kim is when she sings Ellie Goulding's "Burn" to him. Whatever he did feel for her doesn't persuade him to end his plot for revenge toward Steven, even as Kim urges him to heal her and run away with her.
- Karma Houdini: Martin gets away with his plan of revenge on Steven, Steven gets away with killing Bob, and Matthew gets away with whatever his role was in the death of Martin's father as well as getting a handjob out of the bargain.
- Kill the Cutie: Poor, sweet Bob is the one to get killed off.
- Leave the Camera Running: Several shots, especially those in the hospital, are little more than still shots with a slow zoom. This adds to the general unease of the whole thing.
- Magical Realism: Aside from at the start when Steven refuses to believe that Bob (and by extension Kim and Anna) is cursed mostly out of denial of the situation they are in, nobody really questions whether Martin has really cursed the family. They mostly just accept it in relative stride after seeing the signs and begin trying to influence Steven's decision on who has to die.
- Mama Bear: Zig-zagged in a frightening fashion. Anna does rail against the doctors who try to dismiss her children's illnesses and insists that they come home rather than stay in the hospital. However, she never once considers sacrificing herself to break the curse, even telling Steven that choosing one of the children is a better option because they can always have another.
- Misplaced Retribution: Anna point-blank asks Martin why she and her children, who are innocent, have to suffer for her husband's mistake. Martin acknowledges that the choice isn't fair, but claims Revenge by Proxy is the only thing he can think of that's close to justice.
- Never My Fault: Steven claims that surgeons can never kill their patients, only an anesthesiologist can. Meanwhile, the anesthesiologist tells Anna the opposite. Their wording is almost exactly the same even.
- Never Trust a Title: For those who are familiar with Greek mythology. The Literary Allusion Title refers to the myth of Agamemnon having to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to appease an angered god. During the movie, Kim's principle mentions that Kim wrote an A+ essay on Iphigenia. All this seems to foreshadow that she will be the one that Steven sacrifices at the end. She isn't. Poor Bob is the one who is ultimately killed, though he was chosen through random chance.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Steven realizes Martin is telling the truth about his family being subjected to a four-step process of slow deathnote when Bob refuses his favorite donut, thus indicating the second stage.
- Parental Favoritism: Done terrifyingly once Kim and Bob return home. They have a lengthy conversation that, on the surface, might be any sibling argument over who is the favorite...except, in this case, they're making cases about why Steven will choose the other for the sacrifice. As well, the mother and father seemingly treat Kim more gently than Bob, as at the beginning dinner Anna scolds Bob for slouching but doesn't address Kim, who was doing the same thing right across from her. Steven is also gentler with Kim after the curse affects her; not only does he gently urge her to eat a piece of fruit instead of attempting to shove it down her throat as he did Bob with a donut, but he also never attempts to force her to walk on her numb legs or doubt that she's faking it.
- Parental Incest: Steven mentions that he masturbated a lot at Bob's age and was worried that he wasn't ejaculating a normal amount, so to check, he once went to his drunk, sleeping father and gave him a handjob to see how much he would ejaculate to compare.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Averted with Martin, who openly discusses his mother's sexual attributes with Steven.
- Red Herring Twist: The rules of the game and the minor but frequent background presence of the family dog may lead viewers to suspect that it would count as a family member that could be killed to break the dilemma. Maybe it could have, but unfortunately, this isn't that kind of movie.
- Riddle for the Ages: It's never clear how or even whether Martin is affecting the children. The doctors are unable to find anything wrong with them. Steven frequently accuses them of faking it. Martin tells Steven that everyone in his family will eventually suffer the same afflictions, but even as Bob supposedly approaches death, neither Steven nor Anna experience any of his promised symptoms.
- Rule of Three:
- There are three stages to the curse before death: paralysis, refusal to eat to the point of starvation, and bleeding from the eyes.
- When Steven uses the Spin the Bottle technique to select a family member for the sacrifice, he succeeds on the third trial.
- Sadistic Choice: Martin tells Steven that he must choose one of his family members to die as repayment for Steven killing his father. There is no way for Steven to avoid making this choice, as waiting it out will ensure the deaths of his family members. As well, Martin implies that not even killing him will lift the curse, as Steven's family members will perish with him.
- Signature Style: Much like in Lanthimos' previous films The Lobster and Dogtooth, every character speaks in a precise and somewhat robotic fashion, often making blunt and off-topic remarks that would be shocking in our own society but which go without comment in the film.
- Silent Credits: The end credits roll over ambient sounds.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Bob dies for Steven's drunken mistake.
- Shout-Out: The title refers to the myth of Agamemnon and Iphigenia. Kim's teacher mentions that she wrote an essay about Iphigenia and read it aloud to the class.
- Tears of Blood: Martin informs Steven that the third phase of the mysterious illness is that his family members will start bleeding from their eyes; death will follow a few hours later. Dr. Murphy is eventually forced to choose after Bob starts bleeding from his eyes.
- Teeth Flying: In the Torture Cellar, Martin spits out a tooth after getting punched in the face by Steven.
- Torture Is Ineffective: Steven abducts Martin and attempts to torture him into ending the curse, but it doesn't work.
- Villainous BSoD: Martin mentions that after his father's death, he was told that he eats spaghetti exactly like him. When he learned that everyone eats spaghetti the same way, he was extremely upset, even more so than when his father actually died.
