YMMV / The Killing of a Sacred Deer

• Epileptic Trees: With the Genius Bonus in mind and the fact that the methods behind Martin's torment is never revealed, some have theorized that he has godly powers or even is a god and the plot of the movie is divine retribution.
• Genius Bonus: Dogtooth and The Lobster had titles with a straightforward relation to the plot; this title, while coming off as random, is actually a reference to Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis, where the reason for Iphigenia's sacrifice at the hands of her father Agamemnon was that the latter killed a sacred deer that belonged to Artemis and was forced to kill his own child as recompense.
• Narm: Kim screaming "Dad, Bob's dying!"
• Nightmare Fuel: Typical of Lanthimos.
  • A Creepy Child forcing a Sadistic Choice on you and there's absolutely no way to stop him from killing you and your family? Sheesh.
  • There's also the nature of the spell Martin puts on the family: it happens in stages, with the first two being lower body paralysis and refusal of food. The second is particularly creepy, because there's no reason why that should be happening physiologically; even when Kim tries to eat a single bite, she's unable to and coughs it up immediately. Were it not for their feeding tubes, the children might have starved to death with piles of food right in front of them.
• One-Scene Wonder: Alicia Silverstone as Martin's mother.
• The Scrappy: Kim, due to her being in love with the creepy Martin and even more so as the film continues when she tells her younger brother about how she will go live with Martin and wants his MP3 player after he dies. She is just too unsympathetic and creepy like her boyfriend, so many audience members were hoping she would die instead of her brother.
  • The mother, who comes off as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing to the audience. She drops her Mama Bear facade when Steven isn't around and handles her daughter roughly. As well, after seemingly caring about the health and safety of her children the entire movie, she coldly tells Steven to consider sacrificing one of them because they could always have another. She also never once offers to sacrifice herself to save their children, making her attempts to appease Martin by kissing his feet in a worshipping manner, cleaning up his wounds, and eventually letting him go come off as though it was in her own self-interest.
• The Woobie: Poor poor Bob. He is probably the most sympathetic character in the movie. He is the youngest, suffers the longest from the curse, is the one who is clearly the most scared when Steven decides to choose who dies by a sort of roulette, and is ultimately the one who is killed.

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