What happens when a surgeon’s sterile world collides with a curse that feels biblical yet unnervingly modern? Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) dares to ask, delivering a psychological thriller that’s as precise as a scalpel and as unsettling as a heartbeat skipping. This isn’t just a film it’s a dissection of guilt, power, and family, wrapped in a Greek tragedy for our anxious age. Eight years on, its eerie resonance feels sharper than ever, speaking to a world grappling with moral debts and invisible consequences.

Lanthimos’ direction is the film’s pulsing core. His cold, deliberate pacing and stark framing think Kubrick meets Haneke turn every scene into a pressure cooker. The camera lingers on mundane moments, like a hospital corridor or a family dinner, until they brim with dread. It’s masterful, though the slow burn might test viewers craving instant gratification. Yet, this restraint amplifies the horror, making the surreal feel suffocatingly real. In 2025, where fast-paced blockbusters dominate, Lanthimos’ patience feels like a bold middle finger to fleeting attention spans.

The performances are hauntingly magnetic. Colin Farrell, as Dr. Steven Murphy, channels a man unraveling under the weight of his own hubris, his stoic facade cracking with every desperate choice. Barry Keoghan’s Martin, the enigmatic teen who sets the story’s curse in motion, is a revelation his soft-spoken menace is like a snake coiling in plain sight. Nicole Kidman, as Steven’s wife, brings icy poise, though her role feels underused, a rare misstep in an otherwise tight script. Their chemistry, or lack thereof, mirrors the film’s theme of emotional detachment, hitting hard in an era where we’re all a bit too comfortable with curated distance.

Colin Stetson’s score, all dissonant strings and primal drums, is a character in itself, gnawing at your nerves like a warning you can’t ignore. It’s not flawless some scenes lean too heavily on shock value, and the allegory can feel heavy-handed but these are small quibbles in a film that dares to disturb. Today’s audiences, hooked on true crime and moral ambiguity, will find its exploration of justice and sacrifice unnervingly topical. The Killing of a Sacred Deer isn’t easy viewing, but it’s a mirror we can’t look away from. Watch it, and you’ll be haunted long after the credits roll.