Rent The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

An odd mix - The Killing of a Sacred Deer review by CP Customer

An odd mix of the tedious, the sinister and the bizarre. Nicole Kidman was in her element! Unconventional, odd plot, quirky dialogue relentlessly low key. Will be one of those love/hate films I suspect. Note, you'll need patience to get past the first 40 minutes or so.

Not Good - The Killing of a Sacred Deer review by IG

A film of two parts: The first third quite expertly draws you in, is intriguing, builds anticipation for what is to come, thereon in, it becomes increasingly ridiculous, drawn out and boring. Having wasted two hours of your life watching this rather odd drivel you may like me feel very uninspired and rather annoyed at yourself for not turning it off way before the end. The moral of the story, decent actors and slick production do not guarantee a watchable film.

Not for the faint-hearted - The Killing of a Sacred Deer review by jb

Celebrated Cincinnati heart surgeon Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) has struck up an odd friendship with 16 year-old, greasy haired Martin, (Barry Keoghan). As we discover why, Murphy's troubled past is revealed and he and family thrown into an escalating, existential crisis.

The line between saving lives and ending them becomes increasingly faint (think how a heart patient is butchered on the operating table).

As with all of Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos's films, the tone moves, often in the same scene, from puzzling to deeply unpleasant, from horror to farce, never allowing the audience to settle. Dialogue, often seemingly pointless or trivial (the water resistance of a watch, for example) is clipped and expressed almost blankly by the actors: this sense of the characters' deadness is perhaps over-obvious.

Martin, a mixture of vulnerability, manipulative evil and spaghetti-sucking goofiness (a cousin, perhaps, of The Children of Dynmouth's Timothy Gedge) is played quite brilliantly by (the 25-year-old) Keoghan. Nicole Kidman, her Stepfordian perfection weirdly unchanged by time (and so great casting for Lanthimos), plays Anna, Murphy's wife and co-participant in their doctor-patient boudoir antics. The film borrows its empty, oddly lit hospital corridors from David Lynch and certain scenes, for example the Murphy's youngest son Bob undergoing an MRI scan, are reminiscent of The Exorcist. Occasionally you wish Lanthimos would knock back the archness (The Lobster suffered badly in this respect) but his idiosyncrasies continue to offer strong meat in contrast to the vanilla, fat-free milkshakes of Hollywood.

A strange Kubrick inspired Horror - The Killing of a Sacred Deer review by RW

Though no gore fest or slasher flick this is very much a horror film. It starts off quite dull as others have pointed out but then you notice how much it references Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and realise this is better than you first thought. By the end I was engrossed in foreboding that had taken over and really enjoyed it. It's not mainstream fodder and takes some thinking but definitely a great slice of modern cinema.

Tense psychological thriller marred by bonkers resolution - The Killing of a Sacred Deer review by CL

From the opening scene, there is a disturbing quality to this film, which is heightened by the claustrophobic camera shots, sparse dialogue and eerie sound track. The acting is good but the film increasingly becomes unbelievable and silly.

2 Hours wasted - The Killing of a Sacred Deer review by DW

just wasted 2 hours of my life watching an awful film

Terrible plot

2 hours of mumbling and a good cast so cannot understand why they would entertain participating in such an awful film

Will Colin Farrell ever make a decent film worth watching?

Un - The Killing of a Sacred Deer review by CP Customer

Don’t normally find a need to give praise to Nicole Kidman but she’s probably the best thing about this movie!

Became increasingly disturbed the longer I watched and in the end found the whole experience unedifying, uninteresting, unentertaining, unpleasant and quite a few more ’uns’, the list is un...neverending.