Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

The Killing of a Sacred Deer Blu-ray Movie Review

Steven's Choice.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 23, 2018

Note: Certain plot points which some may consider spoilers are well nigh impossible to avoid when discussing The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Those wary of such revelations are encouraged to skip down to the technical portions of the review, below.

Wow.

That may be about the only proper reaction to The Killing of a Sacred Deer whether you love the film or detest it. This latest film from co- writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos reunites him with his The Lobster star Colin Farrell in another patently bizarre tale that almost willfully defies description, or at least genre typing. If, as I mentioned in my The Lobster Blu-ray review, that film almost inevitably engendered a kind of “WTF” response in its tale of an aging populace forced to transform into other creatures, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is almost certain to provoke an even stronger reaction in its tale of what might have been called in the days of The Wolf Man “a gypsy curse”. That completely weird plot point actually takes a while to be revealed, leaving several early interchanges between heart surgeon Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) and a young teenage boy named Martin (Barry Keoghan) without any context to help the viewer, something that, along with some really peculiar scoring choices, is seemingly intentionally designed to make people think there’s some kind of illicit relationship going on between the two. And in fact there kind of is, though it isn’t of the sexual variety. But before Lanthimos gets around to detailing why exactly Martin and Steven even have a relationship, there are other odd vignettes documenting Steven’s seemingly perfect home life, which includes wife Anna (Nicole Kidman), and two children, Bob (Sunny Suljic) and Kim (Raffey Cassidy). I'm starting to almost think of Kidman as a sort of poster child for characters involved in some kind of kinky sex life, as evidenced first by Eyes Wide Shut and then last year’s superb Big Little Lies , for Anna’s foreplay with Steven is certainly going to raise a few eyebrows, at least among the more straightlaced in the audience.

Initially, it seems that if there isn’t some kind of “NAMBLA” thing going on, that Steven might be some kind of “Big Brother” mentor for Martin, and in fact that’s hinted at in some subsequent if still early scenes, where it’s mentioned that Martin’s father was killed in a bad car accident. Only later is it revealed that Martin’s father actually died on an operating table where Steven was the surgeon, after the accident. Martin has decided that Steven is responsible for his father’s death, and comes to Steven with a kind of ultimatum: Steven must kill one of his own family to balance the scales of justice (or at least what Martin perceives to be the scales of justice). If Steven doesn’t comply, Martin calmly informs him that his loved ones will die according to a set series of symptoms that Martin himself is invoking courtesy of some kind of curse.

That’s an intriguing enough premise as it is, but as with The Lobster, Lanthimos wants his surreality amped up as far as possible, and so a number of other elements begin intruding, especially after Bob loses control of his legs, the first symptom that Martin has alerted Steven about. Some might expect the film to exploit a kind of dialectic where a “rationalist” (i.e., Steven) has to come to terms with some kind of atavistic, inexplicably supernatural power that he can’t control, with a “believer” (i.e., Anna, at least ultimately) arguing that the curse is real and needs to be respected as such. And indeed, Lanthimos does go there, but not in the way some might expect. Instead, there are a number of squirm inducing sidebars, including an attempted seduction of Steven by Martin’s widowed mother (Alicia Silverstone). Later, after things go from bad to worse in Steven's increasingly fractured home life, and in what might be seen as a parallel character development to a similar "evolution" in Straw Dogs, the tamped down and emotionally distant Steven gets his rage on and kidnaps Martin, subjecting him to some truly terrifying scenes of torture.

But even aside from plot mechanics, The Killing of a Sacred Deer frequently goes to places that are seemingly intentionally designed to make people feel at the very least uncomfortable. Case in point: Steven attempts to engage Bob in a case of "confession" when he suspects that his son's symptoms are either a fake out or psychosomatic, and he launches into one of the most salacious and just plain disturbing anecdotes imaginable. It's a revelation that no sane father would ever think of sharing with his son, no matter what the situation, and it's just one sign of how daring, if also provocative, Lanthimos can be.

Without hopefully sounding like I’m gloating, as this review is being written the Academy Award nominations have been announced and I was pleased to see that the prediction I made in my The Big Sick Blu-ray review came true, with a Best Original Screenplay nomination for Kunail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. But here’s the thing — I knew the nominations were coming this morning as I was watching The Killing of a Sacred Deer yesterday, and I wondered if by some chance Barry Keoghan would be able to eke out a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his truly astounding work in this film. Alas, that didn’t happen, but I have to say for my money Keoghan’s Martin is one of the most terrifying sociopaths I have ever seen portrayed on film, and the fact that the character almost has an almost developmentally disabled sweetness about him makes it all the more horrifying. It’s an absolutely electric performance and it helps anchor the film when it has a tendency to wobble out of control.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is not “comfortable” viewing in any way, shape or form, and even Farrell in the supplementary featurette mentions how dark and disturbing the film is. Some friends of mine who saw the film before I did called it a black comedy, but I have to say I personally saw none of the whimsy that informed The Lobster in this film. But all of this said, kind of like The Lobster and probably even more so than with regard to that film, I kept wondering what Lanthimos’ point was in all of this intense psychological turmoil. The film is positively dripping with mood, but I’m not sure what the actual meaning of anything was. If you like your viewing experiences absolutely visceral but, kind of like Steven confronting a curse, inexplicable, you may have found your next purchase.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While Lanthimos reunites with his The Lobster cinematographer Thimios Bakatakis, in this case the pair shot on film rather than digitally capturing the imagery. The result is a nicely thick looking presentation, one that doesn't really "pop" in any meaningful way aside from a few isolated outdoor moments, but which offers excellent saturation and consistent densities. A number of the hospital scenes are either graded or lit toward the blue end of the spectrum, with an attendant slight loss of fine detail. Lanthimos repeatedly utilizes extreme close-ups throughout the film (as can be seen in some the screenshots accompanying this review), something that helps to support fine detail levels even when lighting conditions aren't optimal. There are a few passing moments when the grain field attains a slightly yellowish quality (apart and aside from any opticals, which are few and far between in this film), but otherwise looks natural and resolves without any compression anomalies.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Killing of a Sacred Deer's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix isn't very "showy" in terms of over the top sonics, but it provides regular if often rather subtle immersion courtesy of both ambient environmental sounds as well as some really unusual score choices, especially in several of the scenes between Steven and Martin. This is a very dialogue heavy film, and that element is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• An Impossible Conundrum (1080p; 22:51) has some excellent interviews with the principal cast and Lanthimos. Kidman looks absolutely stunning in an outdoor interview.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I see that I've cited a maybe insane variety of films in the review above, but I'm about to do it again: what ultimately happens in The Killing of a Sacred Deer may recall a certain decision that is at the core of Sophie's Choice. I think it's a testament to Lanthimos' sensibilities as both a writer and director that despite the patent unreality of the entire plot and even presentational style of the film, there's real emotional impact when Steven has to make a choice of his own. Technical merits are strong, but approach this film with extreme caution if you're easily shocked or disturbed. Recommended.