Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
For more than 30 years, John Kiesewetter has been the source for information about all things in local media — comings and goings, local people appearing on the big or small screen, special programs, and much more. Contact John at johnkiese@yahoo.com.

'The Killing Of A Sacred Deer' Premieres Here Oct. 26

A24 Films
'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' poster

A week before the national release, extras and crew who worked on "The Killing Of A Sacred Deer" in 2016 will attend an invitation-only Cincinnati premiere Thursday at the Esquire Theatre in Clifton.

Credit A24
Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell star in the film, shot here in 2016.

The event is not open to the public. The psychological thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell opens Nov. 3. It was released in New York and Los Angeles last weekend, said Jackie Reau of Game Day Communications.

"The Killing Of A Sacred Deer" was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who won the Academy Award in February for best original screenplay for "The Lobster."

At the Cannes Film Festival in May, Lanthimos and writer Efthymis Filippou shared the best screenplay award with Lynne Ramsay for "You Were Never Really Here." Kidman also was given a "Special 70th Anniversary Prize" at Cannes.

Farrell plays a cardiac surgeon whose relationship with a sinister teen (Barry Keoghan) has a disastrous impact on his wife (Kidman) and their two children. Alicia Silverstone appears as the teen's mother.

After the Cannes screening, Raphael Abraham of the Financial Times gave the film five stars. He called it a "full-blown psychological horror" that "will no doubt appall many and upset all, but this is a gripping and off-kilter horror of operatic grandeur, twisted humour and unabashed seriousness."

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardiangave it four (of five) stars, calling it a "bizarre, disquieting tale" about a "successful professional man and his beautiful wife and family, all of them coming apart at the seams in the face of a voodoo menace."

https://youtu.be/_SzWAfsdZXY","_id":"0000017a-3b4d-d913-abfe-bf4d30070001","_type":"035d81d3-5be2-3ed2-bc8a-6da208e0d9e2"}">https://youtu.be/_SzWAfsdZXY">https://youtu.be/_SzWAfsdZXY","_id":"0000017a-3b4d-d913-abfe-bf4d30070001","_type":"035d81d3-5be2-3ed2-bc8a-6da208e0d9e2"}">https://youtu.be/_SzWAfsdZXY

Here's the plot description from the film's official website:

"Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon presiding over a spotless household with his ophthalmologist wife Anna (Nicole Kidman) and their two exemplary children, 12-year-old Bob (Sunny Suljic) and 14-year-old Kim (Raffey Cassidy). Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin (Barry Keoghan), a fatherless teen who Steven has covertly taken under his wing. As Martin begins insinuating himself into the family's life in ever-more unsettling displays, the full scope of his intent becomes menacingly clear when he confronts Steven with a long-forgotten transgression that will shatter the Murphy family's domestic bliss.

"Lanthimos has crafted a sensational thriller brimming with unsettling humor and creeping dread, steeped in Greek tragedy, existential horror, Hitchcockian psychodrama, and riveting suspense. Darting confidently between genres to subvert our expectations at every turn, 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' firmly cements Lanthimos in the pantheon of world-class auteurs and marks him as a cinematic provocateur without precedent."

John Kiesewetter, who has covered television and media for more than 35 years, has been working for Cincinnati Public Radio and WVXU-FM since 2015.