Dr. Steven Murphy is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who presides over a spotless household with his wife and two children. Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin, a fatherless teen who insinuates himself into the doctor’s life in gradually unsettling ways.
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Steven Murphy: Colin Farrell
- Anna Murphy: Nicole Kidman
- Martin Lang: Barry Keoghan
- Kim Murphy: Raffey Cassidy
- Matthew Williams: Bill Camp
- Bob Murphy: Sunny Suljic
- Martin’s Mother: Alicia Silverstone
- Ed Thompson (Hospital Director): Herb Caillouet
- Dr. Larry Banks: Barry G. Bernson
- Mary Williams: Denise Dal Vera
- Principal (uncredited): Drew Logan
- Elderly Man (uncredited): Michael Trester
- Conference Guest (uncredited): William Cross
- Medical Consultant (uncredited): Kenneth Meyer
- Hospital Visitor / Dinner Attendee (uncredited): Richard Doone
- Nurse (uncredited): Anita Farmer Bergman
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Lea Hutton Beasmore
- Conference Attendance / Nurse (uncredited): Rachael McAdams
- Medical Conference Attendee (uncredited): Jerry Pope
- Diner Patron (uncredited): Megan Chelf Fisher
- Doctor at Conference and Event Dinner (uncredited): Dylan Keith Adams
- Open Heart Patient on Table (uncredited): William Willet
- Patient / Fisherman (uncredited): Charles Poole
- Doctor (uncredited): Josephine Elle
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Amy Clark
- Conference Guest / Paramedic (uncredited): John W. Harden
- Paramedic (uncredited): Bryant Bentley
- Hospital Orderly (uncredited): Nathaniel Sizemore
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Shuo Chen
- Medical Conference Guest (uncredited): Steven Schraub
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Dori Lucas
- Medical Conference Attendee (uncredited): George W. Ellerman
- Medical Conference Attendee (uncredited): Aaron Pullins IV
- Doctor’s Wife (uncredited): Jennifer Henson
- Medical Conference Attendee (uncredited): Joanne Popolin
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Brian Lamont
- Medical Conference Attendee (uncredited): Gary Maloney
- Diner Patron (uncredited): Brian D. Schroeder
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Margot Westermen
- Nurse / Medical Conference Attendee (uncredited): Michael D Overman
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Derek Polen
- Cafeteria Visitor (uncredited): K.D. Richardson
- Banquet Attendee (uncredited): Charles P. Chambers
- Medical Conference Attendee (uncredited): Sammy Geroulis
- Visiting Consultant (uncredited): Michelle Dobrozsi
- Doctor (Abdominal): Ming Wang
- Cardiologist at Conference (uncredited): Steven Terry Walker
- Doctor at Conference (uncredited): Carly Tamborski
- Secretary (uncredited): Christine Parks
- City Bus passenger (uncredited): Alex Rogers
- Student’s Dad (uncredited): David Pittinger
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Tessa Loxley
- Medical Conference Guest (uncredited): Kathleen Ellerman
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Ronnie Dunn
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Shawn P. Farrell
- Medical Conference Attendee (uncredited): Laura DeJean
- Visitor (uncredited): Debbie Davis
- Coastal Walker (uncredited): John E. Brownlee
- Dinner Guest (uncredited): Braden
- Medical Conference Attendee (uncredited): Denise Barone
- Hospital Security (uncredited): Matt Ridley
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Michelle Poole
- Conference Guest (uncredited): Michael Lee Bailey
- Bunraku Puppeteer (uncredited): Mike Ancas
- Doctor at Banquet (uncredited): John Newsom
- Patient (uncredited): Harry McCane
- Visiting Consultant (uncredited): Robert Gerding
- Janitor (uncredited): William C. Ingram
- Doctor (uncredited): Beverly Kristy
Film Crew:
- Casting Director: Francine Maisler
- Costume Design: Nancy Steiner
- Executive Producer: Andrew Lowe
- Producer: Ed Guiney
- Executive Producer: Peter Watson
- Music Editor: Yorgos Mavropsaridis
- Executive Producer: Sam Lavender
- Writer: Yorgos Lanthimos
- Writer: Efthymis Filippou
- Production Design: Jade Healy
- Thanks: Ariane Labed
- Set Decoration: Adam Willis
- Executive Producer: Keith Potter
- Director of Photography: Thimios Bakatakis
- Still Photographer: Atsushi Nishijima
- First Assistant Director: Atilla Salih Yücer
- Assistant Costume Designer: Claudia Sarbu
- Sound Effects Editor: Steve Browell
- Music Editor: Johnnie Burn
- Sound Effects Editor: Ed Downham
- Visual Effects Supervisor: Ed Bruce
- Makeup Department Head: Tina Roesler Kerwin
- Digital Intermediate: Patrick Malone
- Foley Artist: Caoimhe Doyle
- Hair Department Head: Kelvin R. Trahan
- Digital Intermediate: Jonathan Collard
- Steadicam Operator: Joseph Arena
- Steadicam Operator: Matt Fleischmann
- Dolly Grip: Chris Salamone
- Executive Producer: David Kosse
- Executive Producer: Anne Sheehan
- Executive Producer: Nicki Hattingh
- Dialogue Editor: Niall Brady
- Script Supervisor: Belle Francisco
- Sound Effects Editor: Simon Carroll
- Key Costumer: Jaclyn Laravie
- Co-Producer: Will Greenfield
- Music: Sofiya Gubaydulina
- Gaffer: Russ Faust
- Digital Intermediate: Maria Chamberlain
- Foley Mixer: Jean McGrath
- Foley Editor: Brendan Rehill
- Makeup Artist: Anna Richardson
- Best Boy Electric: Scott Lipez
- Visual Effects Producer: Kenneth Coyne
- Visual Effects Supervisor: Nicholas Murphy
- Key Makeup Artist: Jodi Byrne
- Casting: D. Lynn Meyers
- Sound Mixer: Ashley Smith
- First Assistant Editor: Mark Neale
- Art Direction: Daniel Baker
- Set Decoration: Holly Fisk
- Property Master: A. Patrick Storey
- Craft Service: Pamela Ford
- Music Supervisor: Sarah Giles
- Music Supervisor: Nick Payne
- 3D Artist: Vadim Draempaehl
- Hairstylist: Crystal Lewis
- Hairstylist: Tanya Tieman
- Makeup Artist: Andrea Vieth
- Digital Intermediate: Neil Harrison
- Digital Intermediate: Charlotte Barnes
- Digital Intermediate: Georgina Cranmer
- Production Coordinator: Taylor Morgan
- Executive Producer: Daniel Battsek
- Sound Effects Editor: Max Behrens
- Co-Producer: Paula Heffernan
- Post Production Supervisor: Verity Wislocki
- Unit Production Manager: Emily Kacere
- Executive Producer: Amit Pandya
- Executive Producer: Marie-Gabrielle Stewart
- Associate Producer: Kamen Velkovsky
- Second Assistant Director: Peter Wolf
- Graphic Designer: Vasilis Marmatakis
- Production Coordinator: Emer O’Shea
Movie Reviews:
- jessetaylor: My immediate response as soon as this finished was “MASTERPIECE.” Lanthimos is back to _Dogtooth_-level craziness with this film and I couldn’t be happier. _The Lobster_ was a favourite of mine in 2016, but something about this one’s hopelessness drew me in more – odd, I know. Lanthimos’ films have characters stuck in dead end situations where they are able to make a choice, but the results of the options are bad and worse. It’s a dour story and the film is relentlessly unsettling, but this is what I’ve come to expect and want out of this Greek maestro.
Sacred Deer is a suburban Greek tragedy that draws inspiration from Euripides’ _Iphigenia in Aulis_ – a character even mentions this title in a key scene – and it plays out both as you’d imagine and with great shock and originality. Lanthimos and his writing partner Efthymis Filippou may just be my favourite writing team working today – they haven’t let me down yet.
The cast is spectacular here with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell in top form bringing the odd words of Lanthimos and Filippou to life – albeit a very, very strange life. Farrell, having worked with Lanthimos on The Lobster, had nothing but high praise for the director during tonight’s Q&A after the screening of the film. He even said they were planning another project to work on together. He’s slowly becoming a muse and their relationship is turning into a DiCaprio-Scorsese type partnership (except I look forward to these way, way more).
The audience I was in had a hard time with this film – there was audible shock and disgust during the film and the applause as it ended was slight. I think people were genuinely scandalized by this one and that makes me like it even more. Keep shocking audiences, Lanthimos, you Greek bastard. I’ll be in line every single time!
- Gimly: I am a big fan of some of Yorgos Lanthimos’ earlier work, so _The Killing of a Sacred Deer_, which I had been told in no uncertain terms would be a straight up horror movie, was well and truly on the agenda for 2017. Unfortunately, I found that not only was _Sacred Deer_ not at all a horror, but more importantly that it lacked the dark whimsy of something truly odd, like the director’s previous film, _Lobster_. Instead it opts for an outright uncomfortable tone. The world is real, boringly so, and it is only the characters who seem unbelievable. Which is a 180 on the sort of absurdism I usually gravitate towards. That said, _Sacred Deer_ still contains some beautiful cinematography, and a couple of the most genuine laugh-out-loud moments I’ve seen in a movie all year.
_Final rating:★★½ – Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._
- tmdb23156637: Finally got the chance to see this via Amazon.
Dogtooth and The Lobster (from the same Greek director, who I must admit has a keen sense of storytelling) did not impress me at all. Very interesting ideas; atrocious presentations. Dogtooth was indecipherable and The Lobster is cruel, ugly, and not humorous in any fashion (I’ve no idea why it’s billed as a black comedy.)
However, this latest film is entertaining to me despite it’s grim and inky-black nature (based on the ancient Greek play, which is where the title is loosely derived from.) Perhaps it’s a bit more straight-forward despite its cryptic nature, a bit more involved in some form of reality we can recognize and less inference as to what the hey is really happening. But I sure watched it w/ more interest than The Lobster (I’ve no interest in the director’s film prior to that one.)
A successful heart surgeon (w/ a past history of alcoholism, sober for some time at present) is shown to have an uneasy alliance w/ the teenaged son of a patient who died on the operating table. It’s clear the boy has some hold over this surgeon, who seems eager to please him but his heart’s not into it (no pun intended.)
The boy’s true intentions are revealed as events move forward; the surgeon’s wife and two children (a few years apart, both intelligent in their own ways) are placed in grave danger as well as dear old Dad, and to reveal just how would spoil it for first-time viewers.
The camera-work here is impeccable, as are the jarring soundscapes, found-sounds, and industrial noise which makes for harrowing listening. The actor playing Martin, the teenaged oddball w/ a shared secret, is riveting to watch in a well-suited role.
Sacred Deer isn’t so much a horror-film as a drama w/ strong elements of dream-like reality, awkward young romance, and assorted chills and cold calculated sex-scenes involving “playing dead” and “the other.”
My biggest complaints would be as before w/ this director’s work: everyone speaks their lines as if hearing them through an ear-piece to parrot back, which makes the cast seem rather stilted and robotic. This director favors a weird tangent of “Mamet-speak.”
The ending is about what you’d expect, following the matter-of-fact discussions which precede it. Up until that point Sacred Deer does a pretty good job keeping us wondering what will happen next, where will things lead, what is that kid’s gift and whereupon was it bestowed; unfortunately the outcome isn’t as entrancing or unexpected as I’d hoped.
But overall worth my time to watch. Considering how disappointed I was by the previous films by the director I’d watched (great reviews, all of which confounded and puzzled me) this film was much less of a bore and a chore to watch. A pleasant, unpleasant surprise indeed.
- 5rJoud: **What a shame this could have been excellent**
This film depicts the life of upper class people as we like to imagine it, and brilliantly so. The medical doctors couple have it all figured out, speak in complete sentences and are firm and polite. The house is gorgeous, the children are smart and well behaved. The setting of the story as a whole is very well done, believable and with great actors to boot.
The score is not so great. At times we have experimental “music” that just annoys and does nothing for the mood, but the visuals are exciting to watch, we have interesting camera angles, no shaking and clever zooms and motion.
The pace is slow, yet “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” is never boring. There is always a plot twist which is explored after, things take their time but rightfully so.
Why the relatively detailed review for a 1.5 star rating? The problem is that the climax is just a huge letdown. The audience can’t help themselves but wonder what is going on, guessing on the crime the apparently genius 16 year old villain commits. It is never explained. The makers thought it would be enough to have the bad guy win. It is not enough.
In the end everything good about the movie was negated by breaking the suspension of disbelief in a petty way, just ending the movie.
Even “The Leftovers” explained its phenomenon, and that show did not need to. There the mystery was the premise for character development, here the mystery is a tool to keep the viewer’s attention.
I’d like to give less than 1.5 stars, because of how cheated I feel and because of the waste of talent and production value. But I’m sure there are people who love this and people who will learn from this.
18 December 2017
I am migrating my reviews from a different site which has become simply garbage. TMDB looks awesome and I look forward to be a part of it.