In the trailer for A24’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to the wonderfully weird The Lobster, a young woman played by Raffey Cassidy sings “Burn” by Ellie Goulding. The chorus goes:
When the lights turned down, they don’t know what they heard
Strike the match, play it loud, giving love to the world
We’ll be raising our hands, shining up to the sky
Cause we got the fire, fire, fire, yeah we got the fire fire fire
And we gonna let it burn burn burn burn
We gonna let it burn burn burn burn
Gonna let it burn burn burn burn
We gonna let it burn burn burn burn
It’s yet another slowed-down pop song (approximately the 833rd of those since The Social Network), but it works here. There’s little emotion in her voice, which paired with the disturbing visuals of people being unable to walk, makes for an eerie trailer. It’s difficult to make out the plot of The Killing of a Sacred Deer — the clip is more concerned with atmosphere than exposition — but the film follows Colin Farrell character’s Steven, a “charismatic surgeon forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behaviour of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.”
He’s joined in the cast by Nicole Kidman (who’s in everything good lately), Alicia Silverstone, and Dunkirk‘s Barry Keoghan. The Killing of a Sacred Deer plays at Fantastic Fest in Austin in September before opening on October 27.
