The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

"It's a metaphor. 
I mean, it's symbolic." 

*Cut to Steven telling his son they're going to go for a walk before dragging him across the floor and letting him fall on his face repeatedly, such good parenting*

It pains me deeply to rate an A24 film so poorly, but this one was really a miss for me. It's not that I don't know the tale of Iphegenia, because I am well aware this is where the title and concept of the film originate, the execution just fails to impress me. While it achieves what I hope is the goal of being unsettling, it wasn't enough to make me feel like what I was watching made an impact, made me think, or taught me a lesson. It's honestly just one of those movies where I was wondering when it wound end, and not even how, because we all knew how it was going to end and there was going to be no possibility of a "happy ending." 

One of my biggest pet peeves about this film is the "unsettling," eerie music. Maybe it was an artistic choice to assist in the telling of the story, but it happened so often and so loud, it was hard for me to take any of the scenes seriously. Right when I was getting pulled in and wondering what would happen and asking why things were happening, out of nowhere an extremely loud EuuUGGhUeRRrRrr would sound and kill the built-up suspense entirely. At the fourth or fifth point, it was just comical to me, in which the rest of the film I would make internal bets on whether or not it was going to happen in the current scene. This was a really huge issue for me and I seriously think it took away from the overall experience of the film, artistic or not. 

I saw one user state that it's important to focus on the "why" more than the "how," and that'll help with the appreciation of the film. I totally agree, it is more improtant to ask why things are happening to the family and not how Martin has the "power" to "make" these things happen, but even with that aside, it still fell flat for me. The decisions of the characters, Steve especially, didn't make sense to me. It was oh so clear that a sacrifice would have to be made, I would have known that after the second kid was affected and as soon as they both weren't eating. I am unsure why Steve took so long to decide, perhaps he just wanted more time with his children, but you'd think he would've thought of a plan by then opposed to just standing and wallering around hoping that Martin may "change" things, especially after beating the shit out of him. More importantly, the mother was so annoying, that would've been my first choice, personally. 

The tale of Iphegnia is about her father, Agamemnon, upsetting the Greek goddess Artemis and having to sacrifice Iphegnia because of his mistake and offense. Similarly, Steven is forced to pay the price for his mistake and offense to Martin. I understand the metaphor and the symbolism of having to pay for your sins, but. I'm unsure. I just feel like there has to be a better way of executing this theme wtihout Barry Keoghan shoving his face full of spaghetti, a little girl singing Burn horribly by Elle Goulding, and Nicole Kidman being an absolute bitch. 

It was clear that there was no avoiding the consequences of his actions, and instead of owning up to them or even speaking to Martin directly, he decides to cower. The entire film is Steven trying avoid what cannot be undone, and whlie people may be saying "Yeah, but he doesn't know that the children cannot be saved!" these are the same ones saying "It's important to just go with it." In the same vein, assuming Steven should've just realized that mister spaghetti-eating prophet was right  and that it was inevitable instead of locking him in the basement and beating him up, as if that would of even helped if he did possess the power. 

The whole entire film just bored me and, quite honestly, if the loud annoying noises weren't keeping me alert, I probably could've fallen asleep. Between the bitchy wife complaining the entire time and throwing her kids under the bus, the ignorant daughter who was still fucking with the dude to "blame" for what her family had to go through, Martin just sitting there seemingly clueless playing dumb the whole time, the hospital writing off any explanations, I just was so insanely bored and annoyed waiting for the film to end. 

It's disappointing, because I think in theory, a film depicting the tale of Iphegenia could be extrordinarily executed and intriguing, but this was, unfortunately, not that. I'm not too familiar with Yorgos's work, but I did enjoy Poor Things and want to see Kinds of Kindness, in which the prior is incomparable to this slow, dull movie that can be boiled down to the sentence "facing the inevtiable consequences of your actions" with loud music added in the background. I may rewatch it again in the future to see if my opinion changes, but I highly doubt it, as it was so painful to even attempt to get through the first time.