This week on My Bleeding Ears: Jessalynn’s Corner (musical interlude TBD), we discussed the film The Killing of a Sacred Deer, written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who is also known for the critically acclaimed, The Lobster.
The movie opens with Dr. Stephen Murphy (Colin Farrell) leaving the hospital and meeting a boy named Martin (Barry Keoghan) in a diner. It’s unclear how they know each other. Martin later joins Stephen’s family for dinner, and meets his wife Anna (Nicole Kidman), his daughter Kim (Rafferty Cassidy) and his son Bob (Sunny Suljic).
 |
Farrell and Kidman have a spooky hott chemistry. I don’t think The Beguiled
is as good, but it’s definitely worth a watch to see these two together again.
|
At first, Stephen claims the boy is a friend of his daughter’s and is interested in medicine and also looking for a male role model since his father was killed in a car crash. We find out that the story about his father’s death is not entirely true. Martin sought Stephen out because his father died on Stephen’s operating table. Martin believes his father died because of Stephen’s reckless alcoholism (something Stephen will dispute by insisting that there was nothing he could do, and when a patient dies on the operating table, it’s always the fault of the anesthesiologist). And if you think I've already spoiled a lot, believe me, I haven’t. Wanna watch it? Stop here.
When Stephen begins to pull away from Martin after an awkward dinner with Martin’s mother (Alicia Silverstone), in which she attempts to seduce him, Martin makes known his true intentions. He wants to even the score for his father’s death. Stephen must choose one of his family members to be sacrificed, or they will all die. In a chillingly even voice (yet rushed and still somehow juvenile, because he’s promised Stephen that he’ll “say it fast”), Martin tells Stephen that first, his family will lose the ability to walk, and then stop eating. Once their eyes begin to bleed, Stephen will have only a few hours left to choose, or they all die.
 |
| HI! SUP GURL?! ILY, even though it’s kinda weird you fed your kid like bird moms do. Just: ICK. That’s all. |
Sure enough, Bob wakes up one morning and can’t feel his legs. Their daughter Kim is next. Soon after, they refuse to eat and must be fed through a tube. In the hospital, they are subjected to extensive testing, but the doctors can find nothing wrong. They believe the issue is psychosomatic.
Lots of other stuff happens, but I’m droning, so real quick: Stephen is in deep denial that Martin is actually doing this, Martin calls the hospital, speaks to Kim, who can suddenly walk again while she’s on the phone, but relapses when the connection is lost. Anna goes to Martin’s house to plead for her life and the lives of her children, asking why they should be punished for Stephen’s mistakes, and Martin says that it’s the only thing he can think of that comes close to justice (there’s a really tense spaghetti-eating scene. I bet you didn’t think one of those existed. Well, it does. Ok fine, it’s not the only one ). Anna asks the anesthesiologist if Stephen had been drinking that day, and he agrees to tell her if she gives him the saddest handy ever. He says that Stephen had been drinking that day, and adds that when a patient dies on the operating table, it’s always the surgeon’s fault.
With no other medical options, the children are brought home. They begin to argue over who Stephen will choose to sacrifice. Stephen kidnaps Martin and demands that he stop this, repeatedly beating him. Martin doesn’t budge.
 |
| You guys, WHO IS THIS KID? He’s in Dunkirk and I haven’t seen that yet. Is he terrifying in that, too? I had nightmares. NO, I AM NOT JOKING. |
Kim is in love with Martin and I can’t with this one. It’s based on a Greek Tragedy, so I was expecting some really unhealthy life decisions, but Jesus.
Eventually, Anna lets Martin go, realizing that his captivity won’t help the situation. Bob’s eyes begin to bleed, so Stephen ties them all up, gets a shotgun, covers their heads and his own with a sack, places them in a circle, in which he is standing in the center, spins around with the shotgun and fires. Two shots miss, the third one hits. I won’t spoil who he kills I’M JUST KIDDING HE SHOOTS HIS FREAKING ADOLESCENT SON IN THE CHEST AND KILLS HIM.
The movie ends with the remaining family in the diner, where they run into Martin. They leave, but it’s clear that Kim is still very taken with him. CREEP. CITY.
So, I did really like this movie. It is without a doubt a horror film. As I said in the podcast, this director has his own unique style. He films in gray colors, and he inserts loud and unsettling music at very quiet points of the movie, which is effective in keeping you on edge throughout. I was very stressed out by the end. It's never revealed how Martin is making the family sick, and I like that it's ambiguous, even perhaps supernatural. It wouldn't add anything to the film to understand the "how" of their illness and it's scarier to believe there's no cure than to hope for possible solutions.
I will say that I am a little tired of the dead-eyed line delivery you get in movies about rich white people. Maybe the point is that even earth-shatteringly horrible things can’t get to you when you’re really rich? I dunno. When Martin does it, it’s more effective, because this dude is clearly a psychopath, but the rest of the cast performances tend to bug me at times. There’s even a moment when Anna casually suggests to Stephen that one of the children should die, because they can always have more children and, IT’S NOT A GOLDFISH, ANNA. THESE PEOPLE CAME OUT OF YOUR BODY. (Plus, I didn't even get into the fact that apparently Anna has to lie there like a dead person before she and Stephen have sex, but that was also a thing.) The only one who’s really allowed to emote is Colin Farrell, and I think we all know that he’s good at it, so there's that.
Anyway, I'd like to say I would watch it again because I do think it’s the type of movie that has hidden little nuggets throughout that you could find in a second watch, but I’m not sure I can put my heart and brain through it all again. I’m very sad now. Will The Lobster make that better or worse? I’m going to find out either way.
Letter Grade: A
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou
Cast:
Colin Farrell……………………………….Stephen Murphy
Barry Keoghan…………….………………Martin
Nicole Kidman…………………………….Anna Murphy
Sunny Suljic…………………………………Bob Murphy
Raffey Cassidy…………………………..…Kim Murphy
Alicia Silverstone…………….…………..Martin's Mother
Barry G. Bernson………………….……..Dr. Larry Banks
No comments:
Post a Comment