10 Horror Movie Characters Who Had To Make Horrendous Decisions

It's hard to envision a more torturous decision than choosing which member of your own family should die.

Unfortunately for Colin Farrell's Steven Murphy in the critically acclaimed psychological horror The Killing of a Sacred Deer, that's exactly the predicament that the cardiothoracic surgeon finds himself in. Yorgos Lanthimos' 2017 offering follows Murphy's plight after he causes the death of a patient by operating on him while under the influence.

Murphy's family duly becomes plagued by a series of inexplicable medical conditions including paralysis and an inability to eat. The patient's son Martin - played in a mesmerising turn by Irish actor Barry Keoghan - reveals that the surgeon must kill a member of his own family in recompense for the death of his father or the illness will claim them all.

After his son Bob begins to bleed from the eyes - a symptom that Martin warned would precede death by a few hours - Farrell's tortured character is incapable of choosing who to kill. He takes the decision out of his own hands, tying his family up in a circle and covering their heads with hoods. Murphy then obscures his own vision with a woollen hat, spinning himself in a wild circle before firing a rifle in random directions.

Steven's third shot hits Bob, killing him instantly and providing the end result for one of the more harrowing decisions in cinematic history.