The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Steven Murphy is a celebrated cardiovascular surgeon who holds his family life up as a calm, orderly facade. Behind the pristine routines sits a quiet unease as a boy named Martin Lang, a fatherless teen, starts orbiting the Murphys with a polite intensity. Martin's appearance is casual at first, a weekend chat, a shared pizza, a partially told backstory, but his attention soon grows more insistent. The household's veneer begins to crack as Martin's presence drags into the rooms where life is meant to stay predictable. The tension thickens without obvious violence, turning ordinary dinners and polite conversations into uneasy chess moves about fate, fairness, and consequences. No one seems immune to the strange pull of this unwelcome guest.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and featuring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman, the film is an original screenplay by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou. Made on a modest 3 million budget, it premiered in 2017 and showcases Lanthimos's austere, clinical style.

The film solidifies Lanthimos's reputation for dry, detached delivery and morally opaque plots. Its unsettling dynamic between a polished family life and a menacing guest sparked discussions about consequence and ethics in contemporary thrillers, reinforcing his distinct, provocative voice.

Critics praised the cool precision of the performances and the film's sober, claustrophobic mood. The story centers on guilt and punishment and the price a family pays when ordinary life is forced to confront unsettling moral limits.