10 Toughest Dilemmas In Horror Movies
4. Which Family Member Would You Sacrifice? - The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer posits an absolutely brutal dilemma for heart surgeon Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell).
After a patient dies during surgery - a surgery which Steven drank prior to - the patient's son, Martin (Barry Keoghan), curses Steven, requiring him to kill either his son Bob (Sunny Suljic), daughter Kim (Raffey Cassidy), or wife Anna (Nicole Kidman) in order to "balance" things out.
Worse still, if Steven refuses to choose, all three of them will die from a series of escalating maladies - paralysis, refusing to eat, and bleeding from the eyes - within a matter of days. And in case Steven thinks Martin's lying, his family indeed starts exhibiting symptoms.
As a result, there's no ambiguity about the scenario - Steven must make the impossible decision to kill a family member to save the two remaining ones. So, who do you pick?
For many the prospect of killing their partner is perhaps slightly less horrific than murdering their own children, but it's a lose-lose game all the way - no matter who you pick, you're destined for a lifetime's worth of trauma and regret. Still, it's better than your entire family being wiped out, right?
Ultimately Steven decides to take the choice out of his own hands by blindfolding himself and spinning around on the spot while firing a rifle. After missing a few shots, he eventually strikes and instantly kills Bob.