The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

It's divisive. Only 66% of audiences liked it, by Google's archived audience score. Critics agree, scoring it 76%.

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. Wikipedia ↗

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a 2017 psychological thriller directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Colin Farrell stars as Steven Murphy, a successful cardiac surgeon in Cincinnati who has been maintaining a secret, seemingly benevolent relationship with Martin, a teenage boy played by Barry Keoghan, whose father died on Steven's operating table years ago. When Martin's behavior becomes increasingly unsettling and Steven's children mysteriously fall ill — first losing the ability to walk, then refusing to eat — Martin calmly explains the rules of his supernatural vengeance: unless Steven kills one member of his own family, they will all die.

Yorgos Lanthimos directed the entire film in his signature flat, affectless style — characters speak in monotone, deliver devastating revelations without visible emotion, and inhabit sterile, symmetrically composed spaces that make everyday domesticity feel alien. Barry Keoghan's Martin, polite and terrifyingly reasonable, was one of the decade's most unsettling screen presences.