GREEK director Yorgos Lanthimos takes a scalpel to questionable social norms in all of his films.

In his darkly comic breakthrough Dogtooth, over-protective parents try and prevent their children from encountering the outside world.

And in the wonderfully absurd The Lobster losers in love must find a romantic partner within 45 days...or be transformed into a animal.

In his latest feature, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, it is a surgeon himself who goes under Lanthimos’ knife.

The film again sees Lanthimos teaming up with Colin Farrell who excels at these kinds of offbeat roles.

He plays Dr Steven Murphy, a cardiovascular surgeon, whose past catches up with him for a death he caused on the operating table through negligence.

Lurking on the fringes of his perfect life is fatherless Martin (Barry Keoghan on amazing form) who he spends time with out of guilt and distorted duty.

But when Steven’s children inexplicably lose their ability to walk, he is given an ultimatum that will shatter his family’s domestic bliss.

As with all of Lanthimos’ films, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, makes you look at everyday life but in a very skewered way.

This one in particular probes the nature of ‘eye for an eye’ revenge and the god complex that comes from dealing in life or death situations.

Full of unsettling humour and creeping dread, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is as provocative as it is deliberately awkward.

Lanthimos has got this down to a fine art from lingering shots that make you feel like a voyeur to his signature style of making his characters talk in a fast and monotonous way to accentuate that feeling that everything is a bit off kilter.

The only real criticism is the film’s runtime. Lanthimos’ films are never in any rush but certain scenes could easily have been chopped to give the story more bite.

RATING: 7.5/10

DAVID MORGAN