---
title: "The Killing of a Sacred Deer"
year: 2017
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer"
fi1m_id: "the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer"
imdb_id: "tt5715874"
tmdb_id: 399057
wikidata_id: "Q27492140"
fi1m_score: 72
critics_score: 68
critics_reviews: 33
published: "2026-09-29T01:50:47.045165+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-29T01:50:47.627622+00:00"
region: "SI"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos · 2h 01m · Drama, Thriller, Mystery

## Identity

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer
- **IMDb ID:** tt5715874
- **TMDB ID:** 399057
- **Wikidata ID:** Q27492140
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5715874/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/399057, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q27492140

**Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 68 from 33 reviews

*In a sentence:* A surgeon, a teenager, a debt, and a family who all speak as if reading the terms and conditions aloud

> Yorgos Lanthimos brings his flat voices and long corridors to America and builds a revenge tragedy of sickening force, with Barry Keoghan remarkable in it. It is controlled to the last frame and runs out of things to do before it runs out of film.

## Synopsis

Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) is a cardiac surgeon with a large house, a wife, Anna (Nicole Kidman), and two children, Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and Bob (Sunny Suljic). He also meets, in diners and hospital corridors, a teenage boy called Martin (Barry Keoghan), buys him an expensive watch and tells his colleague Matthew (Bill Camp) that the boy is a schoolfriend of his daughter’s. He is not. Martin’s father died on Steven’s operating table. Steven invites Martin to dinner with the family; Martin returns the invitation, and his mother (Alicia Silverstone) is waiting. Then Bob wakes up unable to move his legs, the hospital can find nothing wrong with him.

## Review

Yorgos Lanthimos’s second film in English, after [*The Lobster*](https://film.one/film/the-lobster) (2015), opens on a human heart, beating, filmed from directly above during open surgery while a choir sings. The hands belong to Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell), a cardiac surgeon with a beard, a large house and a wife, Anna (Nicole Kidman), who agrees with most of what he says. He also has a teenage friend called Martin (Barry Keoghan), whose father died on his table, and he is not telling anyone why they meet. Then Martin explains what Steven owes him, and the film spends its second hour collecting. It is as controlled a piece of work as Lanthimos has made, and it is worth your evening if you can bear it. We are less sure it is more than an exercise.

Thimios Bakatakis shoots the hospital and the house on wide lenses from low down or high up, so ceilings press on people and corridors run away to nothing. His camera drifts in behind Steven as he walks, then zooms slowly from a great distance, as if something at the far end of the ward were watching and had all day. Jade Healy’s Murphy house is glass, pale wood and long empty landings, big enough that the family are always a room apart. Nancy Steiner dresses them in clean, expensive neutrals and gives Martin the same shabby clothes in every scene, so he looks like a mark on the furniture. Nobody raises their voice for two hours, and the pressure builds anyway.

Farrell and Kidman speak the script by Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou as if reading it off a form. Steven tells colleagues at a party that his daughter has just had her first period, in the tone he would use for the weather. Anna lies still on the bed and offers him a general anaesthetic. Kidman is doing something precise and quite frightening here: she plays a woman who has organised her life as a series of correct answers, and then watches the questions change. Bill Camp, as Steven’s colleague Matthew, gets the one scene in which two men argue about blame and the deadpan almost cracks, and he plays it well.

Keoghan is the reason to see it. Martin lists what will happen to the Murphys, one symptom after another, in the hospital cafeteria with a plate of chips in front of him, in the voice of a boy giving directions to the shops. He apologises. He means it, or he does not, and Keoghan never lets you settle. It is a performance built out of politeness, and the politeness is the horror.

We should say what it did to us. The first of Martin’s predictions comes true within the hour, and Lanthimos films the child’s body failing in long, level shots from the far end of the ward while his father stands and watches. We felt sick, then angry at the film for making us watch, then aware that this was exactly the reaction it wanted and that being right about it did not make us like it more. Yorgos Mavropsaridis holds shots long past the point of comfort and cuts away only when we have stopped hoping he will. The music is borrowed rather than written for the film, choral and string pieces that scrape and swell, and it is mixed to hurt.

The trouble is what comes after the announcement. The film states its rules and then must keep them, and there is no move left except the one the title promises. The title points at Euripides and Agamemnon’s dead deer, and the script mentions Iphigenia in case we miss it. The second hour repeats the first at a lower volume: another examination, another refusal, another calm conversation about who should die. Because the children talk in the same flat voice as the adults, we never quite believe in them as children, and the stakes thin out exactly when they should be unbearable. *Dogtooth* (2009) used the same manner and had a whole family under it; *The Lobster* had jokes. This has a curse and a clock. Alicia Silverstone appears for one scene as Martin’s mother, it is the funniest scene in the film, and then she is gone.

It runs 121 minutes and carries a 15 certificate, and both feel about right. See it in a cinema if you can, in the dark, with no distractions, because at home you will reach for your phone during the slow zooms and the film needs you not to. Bring no one you would like to eat with afterwards.

*Fi1m score 72, published 29 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is The Killing of a Sacred Deer worth watching?**

*The Killing of a Sacred Deer* is worth watching for anyone who can sit through two hours of quiet, deliberate dread, and we scored it 72. Barry Keoghan is the reason to see it, polite and terrifying, and the film is controlled to the last frame. The second hour repeats the first at a lower volume, and we are not sure it adds up to more than an exercise.

**How long is The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and what is it rated?**

*The Killing of a Sacred Deer* runs 2h 01m. It is a drama and thriller film.

**Where can I watch The Killing of a Sacred Deer in Slovenia?**

*The Killing of a Sacred Deer* is not on any streaming or rental service in Slovenia at the moment. It is available in 30 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Killing of a Sacred Deer* carries a 15 certificate in the UK, and that feels about right; it is not for children. There is little blood, but it opens on open-heart surgery, discusses a teenager's first period at a dinner party, and watches a child's body fail in long, level shots. We felt sick and then angry at being made to watch, which is what the film intends.

**How does The Killing of a Sacred Deer compare to Funny Games?**

*The Killing of a Sacred Deer* and [*Funny Games*](https://film.one/film/funny-games) both set polite young men loose on a comfortable family and refuse to raise their voices. Haneke's victims stay painfully human, so the dread lands harder; Lanthimos has everyone speak in the same flat voice, which makes his film stranger but its stakes thinner. Choose Haneke for fear, Lanthimos for craft and Keoghan.

**What should I watch after The Killing of a Sacred Deer?**

After *The Killing of a Sacred Deer*, try [*Funny Games*](https://film.one/film/funny-games) (1997, Fi1m 74): Haneke’s polite young men arrive at a lakeside house and stay for the night. Then [*The Exterminating Angel*](https://film.one/film/the-exterminating-angel) (1962, Fi1m 87): Buñuel’s dinner guests cannot leave the drawing room, and nobody can say why.

### Reviews we read (33)

- **The Telegraph**, Robbie Collin (5/5): The review calls it the weirdest, most mesmerically unsettling film of the year, highlighting its discombobulating opening shot and the cast’s sadistic finesse in playing with audience expectations. It notes the film’s effect lingers even on a second viewing. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/killing-sacred-deer-review-weirdest-mesmerically-unsettling/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Brian Tallerico (90/100, inferred): Lanthimos crafts a mesmerizing thriller that traps viewers in an impossible moral dilemma with no good answers. The critic singles out the uniformly great performances and Lanthimos’ stunning visual compositions for particular praise. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-2017)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (90/100, inferred): The film is a masterfully realized hypnotic tale of guilt and retribution inspired by Greek tragedy. It features riveting performances, especially from Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman and Barry Keoghan, along with impressive rigor of craft and startling originality. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/killing-a-sacred-deer-review-cannes-2017-1006199/)
- **Empire**, Andrew Lowry (85/100, inferred): This is another piece of proof for the theory that Farrell is quietly one of our finest actors when stretched by the right director. More than anything, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer is an unforgettably unnerving experience. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/killing-sacred-deer-review/)
- **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (85/100, inferred): This tale of revenge orchestrated by teen Martin against Dr Murphy’s family is one of the year’s best vengeance tales. Nicole Kidman’s turn is a sneakily subtle tour de force. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-film-review-a-shocking-story-of-revenge-a3683736.html)
- **Little White Lies**, Trevor Johnston (4/4/4): Lanthimos delivers a confident psycho-thriller that overlays mythology on everyday circumstances to imbue every moment with inexplicable doom. The sheer all-of-a-piece execution, from pacing and composition to performances and use of music, holds the viewer in its steely grip. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer/)
- **Radio Times**, Damon Wise (4/5): Lanthimos creates a chilling US-set modern fable about a surgeon whose friendship with a teenage boy exposes him to a murderous vendetta, with tension escalating in an off-kilter hypnotic mood. Farrell is soulful while Keoghan is the face to watch as he peels off the mask of sanity toward a deranged finale. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-95y3s2/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer/)
- **The i Paper**, Matthew Turner (★★★★): Colin Farrell re-teams with The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos for this deeply disturbing horror drama with a blackly comic edge. The absurdity of the situation gives the film the feel of a surreal, jet black comedy. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/killing-of-a-sacred-deer-funny-terrifying-101153)
- **The Guardian**, Wendy Ide (75/100, inferred): The critic finds deadpan humour meeting full-blooded horror in Lanthimos’s unsettling drama about a surgeon’s friendship with a teenage boy. The film is praised for its clash between ancient myth and modern setting, though reactions may vary between amusement and alarm. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/05/killing-of-sacred-deer-review-yorgos-lanthimos-colin-farrell-nicole-kidman)
- **Total Film**, Philip Kemp (75/100, inferred): Lanthimos’s latest film pushes the boundaries of bizarre yet further. Disturbing and often distressing, but compulsively watchable. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-review/)
- **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (70/100, inferred): This may be Lanthimos’ most scattered and sedate film, but it's his scariest as well. It comes to America and delivers genuine scares through its psychological revenge thriller elements. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-review-yorgos-lanthimos-colin-farrell-nicole-kidman-cannes-2017-1201829951/)
- **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): A ruthlessly controlled drama that achieves its powerful effect by holding back when its dramatic content is most intense, with an inventive attempt to map the stakes of classical tragedy onto skewed modern realism. Kidman’s highly ambivalent performance is one of her best in ages, though the rigorously controlled suspense means the drama stays within a narrow dynamic range. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-cannes-review/5118329.article)
- **The Independent**, Geoffrey Macnab (★★★★☆): Yorgos Lanthimos’s surrealistic revenge tragedy is all the more chilling because of its absurdist and macabre humour. Colin Farrell gives a finely judged character performance as a softly spoken family man whose world is coming crumbling down. [Read](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-reviews-round-up-the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-thelma-ferrari-race-to-immortality-7852-a8033106.html)
- **Variety**, Peter Debruge (Critic's Pick): Lanthimos reveals profound tragedy in a perverse horror scenario about justice and consequences through masterful orchestration. The critic singles out the Kubrickian allegory and the cast’s ability to convey subtext for praise. [Read](https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-review-1202439468/)
- **Vulture** (70/100, inferred): The artful thriller turns out to be a full-throated horror movie, flexing genuine scares in a Lynchian route toward dread. It builds a uniquely chilling portrait of a family melting due to the sins of the father. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2017/10/cannes-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-is-a-chilling-horror-film.html)
- **Financial Times**, Nigel Andrews (60/100, inferred): The review describes the film as barmy, surreal and deadpan-droll, dense with non sequitur and Absurdism, though it becomes nastier then sillier as it goes on, never quite going the distance like prior Lanthimos works. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/38393cfe-bf05-11e7-9836-b25f8adaa111)
- **The Times**, Tom Shone (★★★): The critic sees it as a ruthless allegory that hits the spot for some but notes it fails the babysitter test, preferring more tempting films over its paralysed children and bourgeois shock treatment. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/film-review-yorgos-lanthimos-the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-hitchcock-78-52-j3ln7hwk8)
- **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (3/5): Lanthimos peels back the layers of this horror-inflected tale of classical tragedy with pristine storytelling and gliding precision, with Farrell and Kidman adapting impeccably to the heightened style. The dominant mood is dread and its cruelty is tough to bear. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer)
- **Film Comment**, Michael Sragow (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film hollow and pretentious, with no genuine psychology or thrills despite its thriller premise and mythic allusions. He singles out the stilted dialogue, frigid style, and reduction of characters to mannequins or torture toys for complaint. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-killing-sacred-deer/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (30/100, inferred): Lanthimos turns a domestic-medical nightmare into a feverish exercise in style with technical precision and menace. The critic singles out the self-satisfied provocation and secondhand shocks as ultimately feeling closer to monotony than myth. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-killing-sacred-deer-review-20171019-story.html)
- **Sight and Sound**, Jonathan Romney (30/100, inferred): Lanthimos has transformed himself into an international provocateur confidently working on a quasi-operatic scale with severe, grandiose style and precise direction of the acting. Barry Keoghan is altogether unnerving as Martin, but the film disappoints by not revealing further depths upon rewatch. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-killing-sacred-deer-replays-greek-tragedy-modernist-guignol)
- **Slant Magazine**, Greg Cwik (30/100, inferred): Lanthimos doubles down on stylistic tics in a film that regresses into an homage to itself, with hollowness becoming obvious. The emotional vacancy and weirdness for its own sake undermine the skills, resulting in a meaningless pontification. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer/)
- **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (30/100, inferred): Lanthimos delivers a brutally rigorous tragic allegory that treads close to monotony and sorrowful sadism. The critic singles out the programmatic plot and deadpan tone for complaint while noting the classical inspiration from Greek myth. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-and-the-square)
- **The Playlist**, Jessica Kiang (A): The film is ice-blooded and brilliant, a pure and dangerous work with masterful performances, especially from Keoghan, that explores cosmic justice, suburban alienation, and human selfishness in a divisive, caustic manner. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/yorgos-lanthimos-killing-sacred-deer-colin-farrell-nicole-kidman-20170522/)
- **Collider**, Gregory Ellwood (A-): The critic calls it a riveting and disturbing drama that may leave viewers reeling, a gorgeously rendered gut punch with no happy ending. They single out the lingering emotional devastation and haunting imagery over mere repulsion. [Read](https://collider.com/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-review/)
- **Eye for Film**, Richard Mowe (80/100, inferred): Lanthimos confirms his status as an original and unsettling director through dark humour and psychological rigour rooted in Greek tragedy, with standout restrained performances from Farrell, Kidman, and Keoghan in this story of vengeance and moral choice. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-2017-film-review-by-richard-mowe)
- **HeyUGuys**, Jo-Ann Titmarsh (4/5): The critic praises the film's unique approach blending thriller and absurdist drama, stunning visuals, and strong performances from Farrell and Keoghan, predicting it will help Lanthimos reach a wider audience. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-review/)
- **The Ringer**, K. Austin Collins (80/100, inferred): The critic sees it as another wryly funny, absurdist tragedy that imposes rigid conditions and moral chaos from the outset, with an air of grim mystery and inevitable tragedy. They single out the distinctive style—long tracking shots, affectless dialogue, and the way it turns the premise into a metaphor for justice and desire. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2017/10/18/movies/killing-of-a-sacred-deer-film-review-colin-farrell-yorgos-lanthimos)
- **The Skinny**, Joseph Walsh (4/5): The critic describes it as a wild and dark Greek tragedy delivering high-tension, eerie and unsettling cinema in a twistedly enjoyable way. He singles out Barry Keoghan’s controlled performance and the beautifully shot, domineering atmosphere for praise. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer)
- **The Wrap**, Steve Pond (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a disturbing, cold virtuoso provocation of severity and control that makes no concessions to taste. They single out its polished, Kubrickian precision and the way it grounds Lanthimos's signature absurdity in our world as points of interest. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/killing-sacred-deer-cannes-review-nicole-kidman-colin-farrell-get-dark-freaky/)
- **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (6/10): The film is finely crafted with stunning visuals and strong performances, particularly Keoghan's creepy yet humorous Martin, but ultimately descends into excessive bleakness and cruelty without sufficient purpose. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/553289/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-review/)
- **NME**, Olly Richards (3/5): The critic calls it a chilling and nightmarish sort-of horror film that holds together but is easy to love and hate. He singles out the deliberately detached performances and lack of explanation for the curse as making it simultaneously uninvolving and riveting. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/killing-sacred-deer-film-review-2155811)
- **Paste**, Tim Grierson (7.5): The film is endlessly watchable but only intermittently arresting, held together by strong craftsmanship even if the ideas feel less complex than in Lanthimos's best work. The critic singles out the pristine visuals and sonics as its most ambitious elements. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/yorgos-lanthimos/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer)

## Details

- **Director:** Yorgos Lanthimos
- **Director:** Yorgos Lanthimos
- **Writer:** Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
- **Cinematography:** Thimios Bakatakis
- **Editor:** Yorgos Mavropsaridis
- **Production design:** Jade Healy
- **Costume design:** Nancy Steiner
- **Producer:** Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos
- **Cast:** Colin Farrell as Steven Murphy; Nicole Kidman as Anna Murphy; Barry Keoghan as Martin Lang; Raffey Cassidy as Kim Murphy; Sunny Suljic as Bob Murphy; Bill Camp as Matthew Williams; Alicia Silverstone as Martin's Mother; Herb Caillouet as Ed Thompson (Hospital Director)
- **Runtime:** 2h 01m
- **Release (Slovenia):** 23 November 2017
- **Genres:** Drama, Thriller, Mystery
- **Budget:** $3 million
- **Box office:** $11 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SzWAfsdZXY

## Where to watch in Slovenia

Not streaming, renting or buying in Slovenia at the last check.

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, IN, IT, JP, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PL, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- European Film Award for Best Actor 2017: European Film Award for Best Actor (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Director 2017: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated)
- European Film Award for Best Screenwriter 2017: European Film Award for Best Screenwriter (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Dogtooth* (2009): Lanthimos’s earlier family kept behind a fence, same flat voices, more underneath them.
- *Funny Games* (1997), Fi1m 74: Haneke’s polite young men arrive at a lakeside house and stay for the night. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/funny-games.md)
- *Teorema* (1968): Pasolini sends a beautiful stranger into a Milanese family and lets it come apart.
- *Cure* (1997): Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s detective follows a soft-spoken young man who leaves murders behind him.
- *The Exterminating Angel* (1962), Fi1m 87: Buñuel’s dinner guests cannot leave the drawing room, and nobody can say why. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-exterminating-angel.md)

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer