Yargos Lanthimos returned earlier in 2017 with psychological horror/thriller, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival ahead of its general release later in the year. With an uncomfortable and fiendish setup, it’s another new direction for the innovative Greek director, following up on the critical acclaim and success of The Lobster, which also made it into the Cannes Official Selection.
It’s set to be another unconventional and challenging movie from the highly-regarded director and you can see from the trailer clip below that there’s something not quite right at the heart of the story. It stars Colin Farrell (The Lobster) and Nicole Kidman (Aquaman), who both had a big year at Cannes with this and Sofia Copolla’s The Beguiled making it into the Official Selection. While neither of them went on to pick up the Palme d’Or, which was won by Swedish satirical drama, The Square, it’s very impressive to be in the cast for two of the films on the list.
Release date
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer UK release date has been slated for the 17th November 2017, following its premier at Cannes on the 22nd May 2017. It’ll have big budget competition at the box office when it arrives in the UK with Justice League scheduled for the same weekend. It’s due out in the US and Canada on the 2nd November 2017.
Story
The plot focuses on the uncomfortable relationship between celebrated heart surgeon Steven Murphy (Farrell) and a 16-year-old boy who holds some kind of sinister power over him. He comes to Steven’s house and meets his wife Anna and while there’s an attempt at polite decorum, it’s evident that there’s darkness off on the horizon for them and that the title’s meaning will have to come home to roost eventually.
Cast
Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman lead the cast as husband and wife Steven and Anna Murphy. Barry Keoghan plays the grating 16-year-old companion, Martin, with Alicia Silverstone (Clueless, Batman & Robin, Blast From The Past) starring as his mother. Sunny Suljic and Raffey Cassidy (Tomorrowland) play Steven and Anna’s son and daughter, Bob and Kim.
Production
In addition to directing The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Yargos Lanthimos has also co-written the film with his long-term creative partner, Efthymis Filippou (Dogtooth, The Lobster). Yorgos Mavropsarisis is the film editor, Thimios Bakatakis the director of photography and Johnnie Burn the creative force behind eerie sound.
First impressions
Review scores have been pretty positive for The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, but the write-ups have been much more involved, so you might want to expect a darkly artistic and uncomfortably challenging watch. The fact that Farrell and Kidman also worked together on the year’s other dark deep thinker, The Beguiled, is a pretty good sign that they work well together on-screen in an unsettling situation.
Farrell’s past work with Lanthimos on The Lobster was a bit of a revelation for both of them and we’re expecting another grim twist in The Killing Of A Sacred Deer. The film clips that we’ve seen give very little away, including the one below, but if you like your films like a gravity intensive black coffee then this could be a film to add to the watch list.
