Why The Killing Of A Sacred Deer's Weird Dialogue Makes The Movie Better

August 27, 2024

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer features some unusual dialogue, but despite the strangeness, it actually improves the horror movie — here's why.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is an utterly compelling movie with one strange element — its stilted dialogue. It's a deeply complex movie, but its strange dialogue can often take viewers out of the story. However, examining the movie as a whole proves that The Killing of a Sacred Deer's weird dialogue actually makes the movie better.

The movie follows heart surgeon Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) living an ideal life with his wife and two children. That is, until the teenage son of his former patient, Martin, increasingly inserts himself into Steven's life. When the teen begins to cross the line with Steven and his family, Martin is expelled from their lives, which comes at a devastating cost for Steven.

After his falling out with Martin, Steven's young son, Bob, mysteriously falls gravely ill only to be followed by his daughter Kim. Steven learns that Martin is the cause of this illness. Martin's father died on Steven's operating table, so this is his form of revenge. The only way Steven can keep his entire family from dying of this mysterious illness is by intentionally killing one — an eye for an eye. The Killing of a Sacred Deer's strange dialogue takes this chilling conflict from an emotional family drama to an unconventional horror movie. It's a simple, yet noticeable creative choice that packs a lot of meaning into something so basic as one's manner of speaking.

The plot of the A24 horror movie is an incredibly unsettling one for many reasons. After growing closer to Steven, Martin develops an unhealthy obsession with him, trying to set up the already married doctor with his single mother. Once Steven rejects that idea, Martin brings the illness down on Steven's family – things only get more chilling from there. Steven visits his children's school with horrifying casualness in order to help him figure out if he should kill one. When Bob eventually reaches the final stage of the illness before death, Kim calls out to her father that he is dying. She does so in such an informal tone that one might think she's just informing her father that Bob fell and scratched his arm.

Moments like these in The Killing of a Sacred Deer are deeply unnerving. How could Steven have a casual conversation about which of his own children is better? Why didn't Kim seem to care that her brother was dying? The way characters in the movie handle situations like this make them seem cold. That element sets the audience up for the movie's most heartless moment. In The Killing of a Sacred Deer's ending, Steven realizes he has no choice but to kill a family member. He ties each one up in the living room and blinds them. He blinds himself and spins around with a gun, shooting until he finally lands on Bob.

If the movie's dialogue reflected how emotional these moments should have been, it would've completely changed The Killing of a Sacred Deer's genre. Rich and well-written dialogue would've shifted the focus to the relationships between the characters, but that's not what the movie is about. The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a tale of justice and revenge. The audience isn't meant to form attachments to the characters, but rather question if Martin's actions are justified and wonder how Steven will react. The movie's weird dialogue ensures the audience focuses on the right elements of the movie, making it a truly unsettling watch.

More: How A24 Horror Movies & Arthouse Horror Became Popular In The 2010s

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