Dogtooth posits a family living in a hermetically sealed bubble of the father's making, the teenage children brainwashed into thinking that cats are the most deadly predator there is, that they had an elder brother who died for his disobedience, and that the outside world beyond their walled estate is unreachable. The parents also systematically misinform them with made-up explanations of any new words that slip through their net. The children have ended up a mix of innocence and amorality, turning to incest through lack of external contact.
Lanthimos's film clearly intends to unsettle with its set-up alluding to Josef Fritzl's imprisonment of his daughter, while attempts to say something larger about the banality of evil as well. That it also wants to get laughs in the gallows humour department doesn't help; the ignorance of the children is too chilling to be used as the butt of satire, and overall the tone falls badly between several stools. Sheer idiosyncrasy keeps you watching, but it's clear after a while that there will be no pay-off.
4/10
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