10 Incredible 2017 Movie Characters
8. Martin - The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Yorgos Lanthimos really loves making uncomfortable movies. His 2016 film, The Lobster, made every scene have the same cringe-inducing feel of a bad first date. The Killing of a Sacred Deer has a similar approach to its dialogue, but with a much more sinister (and less satirical) intent: Impending doom. The improbable antagonist of this art house horror film is a disturbed boy by the name of Martin.
Martin has a close mentor relationship with Dr. Murphy, a cardiologist who lives near to him. Over the course of the film, he gets closer and closer to the clueless doctor - even forming a romantic relationship with his daughter. And then he tells Dr. Murphy that if he does not kill a member of his own family, each one of them will die horribly one at a time. This is an elaborate revenge plot for the untimely death of his own father, which Martin blames the doctor for.
The curse Martin placed on Dr. Murphy's family is never fully explained, but one by one, each of Dr. Murphy's family loses control of their legs and falls ill. As the stakes get more disturbingly real by the moment, Martin remains eerily unfazed. Barry Keoghan's truly fearless performance sells the bizarre premise of this film, creating a horror movie antagonist unlike any we've ever seen before.