Cincinnati cardiologist Steven (Farrell) has finally overcome his alcoholism with help from wife Anna (Kidman), with whom he has teen daughter Kim (Cassidy) and the younger Bob (Suljic). Now Steven is secretly meeting Martin (Keoghan), 16-year-old son of a patient he recently lost on the operating table. As they become closer, Steven invites Martin to meet his family. And scary things soon begin to happen, jeopardising his children's lives. Anna is desperate to solve this, while Steven is terrified by what Martin says needs to happen for things to be on an even keel.

Up to a point, it's almost possible to explain this logically, although the film is packed with freaky touches that continually unnerve us. Essentially, this is a revenge drama with a severely nasty twist in the tale, like a particularly vicious Twilight Zone episode. It's also powerfully involving, as the emotions are never far beneath the surface, and the behaviour of the characters is so offbeat that we can't help but lean into the story to try to understand it.

Each actor underplays his or her role, even as encounters become outrageously heightened. This gives the film a dreamlike quality without undermining its realism. Farrell and Kidman are terrific as a tortured couple who haven't given up the fight. Both actors cleverly mix vulnerability and tenaciousness into their roles. And while Cassidy and Suljic have strong moments of their own, it's Keoghan's eerily intense presence that makes the biggest impact.

Lanthimos and screenwriting partner Filippou layer in several themes, but the central idea seems to be that guilt and grief aren't things to play with. Try to suppress them and they only grow in power; unleash them and they come back to haunt you. None of this is obvious, but it is woven right through the subtext of pointed scenes that never look for easy answers. And even if the narrative feels somewhat fantastical, the characters are so real that they chill us to the bone.

themes, language, violence, sexuality

25.Sep.17