The Killing of a Sacred Deer 2017 is Yorgos Lanthimos's attempt to show Lars Von Trier how to properly corrupt the audience

December 31, 2025

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by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".

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I was afraid of 2017 absurdist horror film by Yorgos Lanthimos The Killing of a Sacred Deer, because I know it involves a murder of a child. Ever since Lars Von Trier utterly traumatized me with his depiction of this very thing in The House That Jack Built I avoid movies like this. But seeing Bugonia the other day, where I attempted to psycho-sexually analyse Lanthimos, I realized that I avoided a movie that potentially has a lot of what I need for such an analysis. So I braved myself and saw the damn film. Now I think the film was about corrupting the audience enough that they would feel good about a child being murdered. I'm not joking. That is how the movie is structured. ↩ Reply

First of all, and I have to say it immediately, because it is a huge deal, Lanthimos didn't not treat the kids in this film like clueless babies. Both Bob ( Sunny Suljic ) and Kim ( Raffey Cassidy ) are flashed out characters with their own lives and desires and viewpoints and whatnot. Which is already much better than whatever Von Trier did in The House That Jack Built. To be frank though, Von Trier didn't have much time. The movie is very dense and only a small fraction of it is the traumatizing stuff I'm talking about. And if you look at other work by Von Trier, like Melancholia you can see he does flash out the kids characters when he has the run-time for it. ↩ Reply

Yet something about the kids being so flashed out made the eventual killing in the end of the film a bit less traumatizing for me. But on the other hand it is a lot to do with how Lanthimos shot the scene. Unlike Von Trier that wanted to fuck the audience up as much as possible by basically making the worst possible child-gore-porn for a few moments, while trying to argue that it is fine, due to some messed up point of view, Lanthimos is respectful and doesn't engage in it like a pornographer. Even though the opening shot of the film is absolutely pornographically intense. The movie starts on a closeup of an open heart surgery, with all of the disgusting detail. c:0 ↩ Reply

Not unlike Von Trier, Lanthimos engages quite a bit in the psycho-sexual nature of it all. Our main character is a surgeon played by Colin Farrell who has a weird fetish. As he comes home, his wife ( Nicole Kidman ) pretends to be under anesthesia, which turns on our surgeon. He is turned on by the thought that she can't do anything about him. This is kind of messed up. And it is kind of strangely reminiscent of a villain characters in a Spanish film Matador 1987 with Antonio Banderas. There the main villain is a necrophiliac and his girlfriend pretends to be dead to turn him on. ↩ Reply

Early on, we are also introduced to the so called villain of the movie. A kid named Martin ( Barry Keoghan ) who has a strange sort of relationship with our doctor. It is hinted that they might be having a sexual relationship. Now this Martin character seems to be the same age as Kim. The daughter of the doctor, who by coincidence also learns with him in the same class at school. She becomes later rather attracted to Martin, and we even get a scene as she is trying to seduce Martin into sex. Lanthimos not unlike Von Trier is not a stranger to sexually active children in him movies. Look no further than Poor Things. c:0 ↩ Reply

So here is the main story. Martin claims that there is magical magic that will kill all doctor's family unless he kills one of them. As a kind of sacrifice. The killing of a sacred deer, if you will. And at first our doctor completely dismisses Martin, until the kids get sick and one of them is nearly dying. And the tension builds and builds. And at one point he has no choice but kill one of them, or his wife. They also know that one of them should die. And so the boy changes his behavior to make his dad like him more. The girl changes her behavior to him like her more. And the wife also is trying to make him not kill her, more by using logic, like claiming, that killing one of the kids is "okay" because they could do another one. But if he kills her, they would not be able to. Basically by the end of the film you don't know who from them, if any, will die. And that ultimately leads to a fucked up conclusion. ↩ Reply

In a way the tension, and the cringe of it all ( especially the sexual stuff ) and the way it was presented, made me feel like I'm watching a Lars Von Trier film. Now, Yorgos Lanthimos's style is way more precise. Von Trier likes to capture the moment, usually using spontaneous hand held camera. While every shot in The Killing of a Sacred Deer is well placed and precise. But the subject matter and the tone of the film is very Von Trier. Usually Lanthimos's films are way funnier than that. c:1 ↩ Reply

Now if we look at the dates, Raffey Cassidy ( Kim ) was about 15 when the movie was shot. Barry Keoghan ( Martin ) was about 24, playing a 15 year old. And there is a scene where Kim is trying to seduce Martin. This is interesting. And it gives us a clue into a broad psycho-sexual analysis. What was Yorgos Lanthimos's point here? What was he trying to achieve? From what I gathered by watching the film, it seems Lanthimos is trying to corrupt us all. To make us all think that sometimes there are situations where killing kids is okay. And meanwhile, while we think about this thing, he subconsciously tries to corrupt us even more. Brilliant work, Lanthimos, brilliant work! ↩ Reply

Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply

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Troler c:0

Lanthimos is respectful and doesn't engage in it like a pornographer. Even though the opening shot of the film is absolutely pornographically intense

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Any other examples you'd like to name?

Lanthimos not unlike Von Trier is not a stranger to sexually active children in him movies. Look no further than Poor Things.

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I saw no sexuality active kids in Lanthimos' kinds of kindness.

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Blender Dumbass c:2

I saw no sexuality active kids in Lanthimos' kinds of kindness.

@Troler he is not going out of his way to do it.

Troler c:1

Von Trier likes to capture the moment, usually using spontaneous hand held camera. While every shot in The Killing of a Sacred Deer is well placed and precise

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Isn't that Von Trier way of making shots going to induce confusion and a chilling effect?

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Blender Dumbass c:3

Isn't that Von Trier way of making shots going to induce confusion and a chilling effect?

@Troler Von Trier likes to do long takes, almost like theater, with a few cameras trying to capture everything almost like a documentary. Then he cuts out the stuff that doesn't have emotion. Which creates a very strong emotional effect. Pair it with his writing sensibilities and you get yourself a tough movie to watch.