The contemporary sweetening of the horror genre is complete. With director Yorgos Lanthimos' follow-up to "The Lobster," his alternative romance flick, he successfully cultivated the art of the scary movie. "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" immediately settles its tone as the first scene shows a lavishly red beating human heart. Know that this film is fresh as an opened chest, and the audiences' eyes are peering into its bloody essence -- it wants people to believe its life is as authentic as it is gory.
Its veins flows with a crafty concrete plot: the surgeon portrayed by Colin Farrell is friends with the emotionally timbered teenager, a convincing Barry Keoghan. As their relationship weirdly spawns an illness-curse upon the doctor's family, Lanthimos magically assembles sheer scare and cinematic enigma while he tells the story through faded pastel.
For a horror movie, "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is candy to the eyes, but it bleeds terror till the credits arrive like black-draped death. Whilst based from the work of Greek playwright Euripides, the film manages to be original in its own screenplay that is exceedingly weird; proving it is a horror show yet the characters unravel their emotions as if they were undergoing an open-heart surgery while the audiences see through them.
It is a tell-tale, nevertheless, the film keeps its plot curtained where the real terror lurks. The uncertainty of the final act is a sweet anticipation to the moment of dying. While gaping wounds scare with its gore, 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' saves its true monster through the innovation of the genre. Because sometimes, it is better never knowing the deathly element if it means to enjoy the gruesome movie's thrilling ride.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
*Trailer © A24; YouTube.com
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