We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2011 psychological thriller drama film directed by Lynne Ramsay from a screenplay she co-wrote with Rory Stewart Kinnear, based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Lionel Shriver.

Tilda Swinton stars as the mother of Kevin, struggling to come to terms with her psychopathic son and the horrors he has committed.

As a baby, he cries incessantly, but only around her; as a child, he resists toilet training, rebuffs Eva's attempts at affection, and shows no interest in anything.

He behaves like a happy, loving son in front of his father Franklin, who dismisses Eva's concerns and makes excuses for Kevin's behavior.

When Kevin is confined to bed with a fever, he shows affection towards Eva for the first time as she reads Robin Hood, though his spiteful personality returns as soon as he recovers.

Sometime later, Eva gives birth to her and Franklin's second child Celia, a lively and cheerful girl towards whom Kevin is instantly disdainful.

Three days before his 16th birthday, Kevin uses bicycle locks to trap several students in the school gymnasium and murders them with his bow and arrows.

[8] Lynne Ramsay, who became available after her involvement in the film adaptation of The Lovely Bones came to an end, signed on to direct, and was working on a script with In the Bedroom writer Robert Festinger by 2006.

Ramsay's spokesperson told the newspaper that a new script draft was being prepared and, at the time the interview was published, had not been submitted to the producers.

[7] Michael Clayton producer Jennifer Fox joined the production team in 2008; the film was expected to begin shooting that year.

[23] We Need to Talk About Kevin opened in a limited release in North America in a single theater and grossed $24,587, ranking 53rd at the box office.

The website's critical consensus reads, "We Need to Talk About Kevin is a masterful blend of drama and horror, with fantastic performances across the board (Tilda Swinton especially, delivering one of her very best).

[30] Richard Brody wrote in The New Yorker that We Need to Talk About Kevin "masquerades as a psychological puzzle but is essentially a horror film full of decorous sensationalism."