The thing about Yorgos Lanthimos movies is that the characters’ blank disposition and matter of fact intonation are easy to confuse for an emotional distance, but what the director really does is that instead of conveying the internal state of his characters through poignant conversations and meaningful looks, he makes it the plot of his movie.

In The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Lanthimos tackles the subject of guilt - the relentless shadow that it can cast over our lives and the dangers of letting it fester unchecked - by turning the movie into a classic horror/thriller where the family is being haunted by a psychotic stalker. And who better to play the said stalker than Barry Keoghan, the 26-year-old who simultaneously looks like a 17-year-old and a 40-year-old; a quality that means that he can play both a wide-eyed villager in Dunkirk and a creepy house guest in Sacred Deer.

Keoghan’s skin-crawling stare and eerily innocent voice are balanced by Colin Farrell’s calmly agitated demeanor. The Irish actor somehow maintains the monotonic register while also finding multiple levels within that single register; an apparent contradiction that Farrell somehow makes work. Nicole Kidman, on the other hand, has less to work with but is unable to be anything other than brilliant in the way she weaves a story of her own through merely her eyes. She also together with Farrell sets the stage for the younger actors - Raffey Cassidy and Sunny Suljic - to find their way into the idiosyncratic world created by Lanthimos.

Sacred Deer exists in a strange place withing Lanthimos’ body of work. It is more eccentric and off-putting than The Favourite while also being more accessible and more straightforward than The Lobster. It is also not quite as good as either in terms of pacing and sharpness of writing. But still has enough of the Greek filmmaker’s signature dark humor, intrigue, and disturbing intensity combined with a bold and fresh perspective that makes it an entertaining and provocative watch.