Movie Substrate · Film
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
★ 7.0 · 4,415 ratings on TMDB
Dr. Steven Murphy is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who presides over a spotless household with his wife and two children. Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin, a fatherless teen who insinuates himself into the doctor's life in gradually unsettling ways.
DirectorYorgos Lanthimos
The emergence reading
The Killing of a Sacred Deer keeps every mind human — it fights its subject at zero distance. The story fights on E8/E9 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing justice, guilt, family, choice, myth.
zero-distanceIEjusticeguiltfamilychoicemyth
⇄ Parameter shift — the dial this world turnsrigor: rigorous
E10lawa binding supernatural law forces a family to suffer unless one member is killed (social · local)
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Also bends a rule of reality
Other films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.
Silent Night (2021)alters at E10 · same rung · loose
The Simpsons Movie (2007)alters at E10 · same rung · loose
Incredibles 2 (2018)alters at E10 · same rung · loose
The Incredibles (2004)alters at E10 · same rung · rigorous
R.I.P.D. (2013)alters at E10 · same rung · loose
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)alters at E10 · same rung · rigorous
