History Film / TheKillingOfASacredDeer

** He cared sbout his father, with this being the reason he ends up tormenting Steven and his family: to avenge him.

** Anna has a moment where she violently grabs and holds Kim's arm in response to Kim whispering, "fuck you." [[spoiler: She's also the one who suggests Steven sacrifice one of the kids since they can just have another one, whereas Steven spends the entire second half of the movie agonizing over it]].

* ParentalFavoritism: Done terrifyingly once Kim and Bob return home. They have a lengthy conversation that, on the surface, might be any sibling argument over who is the favorite...except, in this case, they're making cases about why Steven will choose the other for the sacrifice. As well, the mother and father seemingly treat Kim more gently than Bob, as at the beginning dinner Anna scolds Bob for slouching but doesn't address Kim, who was doing the same thing right across from her. Steven is also gentler with Kim after the curse affects her; not only does he gently urge her to eat a piece of fruit instead of attempting to shove it down her throat as he did Bob with a donut, but he also never attempts to force her to walk on her numb legs or doubt that she's faking it.

* BigSisterBully: Kim to Bob, in a pretty twisted way. When presented with the idea that their father will have to kill one of them to break the curse, she rubs in his face that their parents prefer her over him, meaning he's more likely to be sacrificed, and says she'll get to claim his [=MP3=] player after he dies. [[spoiler: It turns into BigSisterInstinct toward the end, however, as she reveals that she does love him and was willing to be sacrificed by their father to save him]].

* CreepyChild: Martin is this in ''spades.'' Everything he does exudes a creepy, unnatural aura.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A shot panning in towards Bob, just as he begins to get sick, [[spoiler:displays a photo of a deer above his head, foreshadowing the ending of the film.]]

* SadisticChoice: [[spoiler: Martin tells Steven that he must choose one of his family members to die as repayment for Steven killing his father. There is no way for Steven to avoid making this choice, as waiting it out will ensure the deaths of his family members. As well, Martin implies that not even killing him will lift the curse, as Steven's family members will perish with him]].

** [[spoiler: Would Martin have let Steven and his family continue to live in relative peace if he hadn't snubbed his mother and decidedly spent less time with him? According to Martin, he and Steven had been having their meet ups for months by the time the movies plot began, and Martin was clearly trying to force a father figure out of him during this time, but the curse didn't take effect until Steven started to pull away from him. That said, Martin also says they both knew the time of retribution would come someday, suggesting that he always intended to curse Steven's family and only decided now was the time when he saw that Steven no longer had any intention of making up for what he'd done]].

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:After Bob's eyes begin to bleed, the final stage of the curse that would lead to death, Steven ultimately opts to fulfill the prophecy and [[TheBadGuyWins allow Martin to get his way]] by killing Bob.]]

* GreyAndGrayMorality: At first it appears that Steven is facing DisproportionateRetribution for an innocent mistake committed years ago, and Martin acknowledges that this recourse is not fair, but the reveal that [[spoiler:Steven was drunk while operating on Martin's father]] lessens the sympathy viewers may feel for him. Steven's actions later in the film also evoke some questionable morality, such as [[spoiler:kidnapping a teenager and beating him up in his basement]].

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: Who, or what, exactly is Martin? He seems like a normal, if not particularly strange, kid, but he appears to be able to place curses on people, turning them on and off at will. It's never explained how or why he was able to do that.]]
** [[spoiler: Whether Martin would have continued to let Steven and his family live in peace if Steven hadn't snubbed him after his interaction with his mother. Steven had been interacting with the kid for either 6 months or 2 years by the time the events of the movie happened, and Martin hadn't done anything to him in that time span. It was only after Steven deliberately ignored him that he seemingly decided that the time for retribution had come]].

* ItsAllAboutMe: Kim. She cares about her kids to some degree, but she obviously values her own life more than theirs. [[spoiler: When she first goes to confront Martin after finding out her husbands role in his fathers death, she asks why she has to suffer for his mistake before asking why her children have to suffer. She also never offers to sacrifice herself to save their kids, telling Steven to sacrifice one because they can just have another, and then makes one last ditch effort to save herself by offering Steven sex. Pretty cold]].

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:After Bob's eyes begin the bleed, the final stage of the curse that would lead to death, Steven ultimately opts to fulfill the prophecy and [[TheBadGuyWins allow Martin to get his way]] by killing Bob.]]

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Whether Martin is actually evil is up for debate. Regardless, he appears to genuinely care for his mother, so much so that he wanted her to hook up with Steven if it would make her happy. Steven running off after she attempted to make a move on him is seemingly one of the things that tipped Martin off to finally curse Steven's family, after a months-long grace period following the death of his father at Steven's hands.

* FanDisservice: The anesthesiologist demands a handjob from Anna as payment for revealing that Dr. Murphy was drinking on the day of Martin's father's death.

* RuleOfThree: There are three stages to the curse before death: paralysis, refusal to eat to the point of starvation, and bleeding from the eyes.

* {{Infodump}}: In a rather one sided conversation between Steven and Martin, Martin lays out pretty much the entire premise of the story, including the stages of the curse, the fact that he has to choose one of his family members to kill, and the fact that Martin's father died in surgery.