Deciding to take advantage of the incident, the father shreds his clothes, covers himself in fake blood, and tells his children that their unseen brother was killed by a cat, the most dangerous creature.

She watches the films (Rocky IV and Jaws) in secret and afterwards recreates scenes and quotes their dialogue.

When the father discovers the tapes, he beats her with one of them, then goes to Christina's flat and hits her with her VCR, cursing her future children to be corrupted by "bad influences".

Only when rehearsals started did he begin to develop an idea of the style in which the film should be shot: one where he tried to combine a realistic environment with "really strict framing and a cool, surreal look to go with the narrative".

[11] Danikas added, "Lanthimos composes and goes from one level to another like a wildcat-creator, constantly and continuously maintaining the same rigorous style.

"[11] Danikas characterized Dogtooth's Academy Award nomination as "the greatest Greek triumph of recent years.

"[12] Columnist Dimitris Bouras, writing for Kathimerini, mentioned "the beneficial effects that the prestigious award could have" and wrote that the nomination reveals three interesting facts: "1) in Greece we need to be extroverts (and not only in cinema), 2) exportable product is whatever has an identity, 3) Dogtooth's nomination is like an investment‍— manna from the heaven of Hollywood for the developing Greek cinema.

[14] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[15] Alistair Harkness of The Scotsman hailed Lanthimos as "a bold new voice on the world cinema scene, someone who might soon be elevated to a similar position as those twin pillars of Euro provocation: Lars von Trier and Michael Haneke", but added that the film is "not [...] designed simply to shock in the way von Trier's work often does, [...] nor does it have that annoyingly prescriptive, punitive air of superiority favoured by Haneke's films.

"[16] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised the filmmaking, finding Dogtooth "superbly shot, with some deadpan, elegant compositions, and intentionally skewiff framings".

[17] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, noting the director's "complete command of visuals and performances.

"[18] Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "All of the film's purposeful weirdness is conveyed with an unaffected simplicity that recalls the dead-aim haphazard compositions of photographer William Eggleston", concluding that, "as a film, it's pure and singular, but it's not quite fully formed enough to be what one could call truly visionary.

You might think of paintings by Balthus or maybe Alex Katz, though the implied stories in those pictures are more genuinely evocative and haunting than the actual narrative of Dogtooth.

"[18] For Bradshaw, the film investigates "the essential strangeness of something society insists is the benchmark of normality: the family, a walled city state with its own autocratic rule and untellable secrets.

"[17] Harkness noted the "absolute mockery the situation makes of the perfect family ideal", where "Lanthimos isn't interested in making specific political or social points and he refuses to offer any clarifying backstory", and found Dogtooth's oddness "as organic and playful as its impact is incisor sharp.

"[24] He continued, "I won't say that the news shows that miracles happen, because the success of Yorgos Lanthimos is based on hard work, talent and his endless potential.