One of the biggest movies of the past year is Poor Things, a surreal dark comedy that has been winning Golden Globes, Critics' Choice Awards and more. Its director, Yorgos Lanthimos, has a track record of equally strange and wonderful films, but Netflix subscribers only have a few days left to watch one of them.
Lanthimos' sixth feature film, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, is set to leave Netflix US' library soon. Its last day on the platform will be Monday, January 22, and so from Tuesday you won't be able to catch it on the streamer.
Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman and Barry Keoghan, the movie is about a cardiothoracic surgeon (Farrell) and his wife (Kidman), whose family begins to be infiltrated by a mysterious boy (Keoghan). Slowly, the boy's intentions for the family become clear, and they are forced to make an impossible choice.
Reception to The Killing of a Sacred Deer was highly positive, yet it didn't hit the box office returns of Lanthimos' previous movie The Lobster or his hugely successful follow-up, The Favourite.
It also wasn't awarded as many accolades: The Lobster had a nomination at the Oscars as well as the Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards and Critics' Choice Awards. The Favourite won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Olivia Colman) and had nine more nominations. Compared to that, the smattering of nominations for The Killing of a Sacred Deer weren't as lengthy.
That might make it a blip on the radar for Lanthimos, with Poor Things expected to net many Oscar nominations, but the movie was still very popular for its blend of horror and dark comedy. The Observer's Mark Kermode gave the movie four stars, calling it a "Saw movie for the arthouse crowd", while Entertainment Weekly said the movie is "bound to enchant some and confound many more."
Comparing the movie to beloved long-running gore series Saw might seem like a curious comparison, but it's not wrong. If you're squeamish, it might be worth avoiding the movie!
Movies come and go on Netflix but some, like The Killing of a Sacred Deer, are well worth watching while you still can. It's Lanthimos' only movie on the streaming service in the US, and so if you're looking for a creepy psychological and atmospheric horror, it's the one for you to watch tonight.
