Narrative Theory

Narrative theory in relation to Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) and The Crazies (Breck Eisner, 2010)

Section 1

‘Classical Hollywood Narrative’ is a term brought about by Tzvetan Todrov, he believed that stories within a film began with an equilibrium which meant all forces were in balance. This was then disrupted by an event; this therefore triggers a chain of events which makes up more of the narrative. After this, problems are resolved so that the equilibrium can be restored to the narrative. Todrov’s idea was that this ‘classical Hollywood narrative’ was an often used form of structure explaining many films plots. I think Todrov’s idea is very useful for understanding media texts as it helps us understand the type of structures of many films and section of parts of the narrative to look into closer. However this narrative structure is not followed when the film ‘Halloween’ is questioned, this is due to the mixed events where the film starts with an disruption of the Michael Myers killing his sister, throughout the film disruptions arise without any equilibrium's resolving these. I think the ‘classical Hollywood narrative’ is not used effectively with many horrors because this helps to make the audience uneasy with the unfolding of the events throughout as they are lest without any equilibriums going against film narrative of which they are used to from other films.

Section 2

Valdimir Propp is a Russian critic who looked into many folk tales, he discovered 8 character roles within these creating his various character types, and these were;

1.       The villain

2.       The hero who is usually the main character within the narrative

3.       The donor normally provides an object of use to the hero

4.       The helper helps the hero through his quest

5.       The princess- the reason for the hero to take part on the quest (his reward)

6.       Her father- rewards the hero

7.       The dispatcher who sends the hero on the quest

8.       The false hero who pretends as though his intentions are pure but is often working against the hero in secret

These character roles which prop developed are often applied to many types of film and TV programmes, this helps identify the ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ within many narratives. I think Propp’s use of identifying the characters into types is very useful as it helps us identify with the people within a narrative and their intentions throughout (pure or evil). Within the film ‘Halloween’ some of Propp’s narrative types are used, this is shown through one of the main characters Michael Myers who is shown to be the villain through his violent acts of seeking vengeance against the other characters within the narrative.

Section 3   

Binary opposites were created by Levi Strauss who was a French anthropologist. He created this theory because he believed a word is made greater/made a word by knowing not the word itself but its opposite and that knowing this makes each words stand out a great deal of a lot more than having them simply on their own. This exaggerates the other such as good vs evil in how these two make the other seem more evil or more innocent as they are completely opposite. Also shown in safety vs danger, known vs unknown and day vs night. In all horror films the good vs evil applies as it shows the battle between the hero and the villain such as in Halloween the battle between Michael and Laurie. Having these two as the main characters enhances the innocence and evil in each other as their actions and characteristics are completely opposite. Danger also comes to find Laurie in night in much of the movie which makes the audience feel relief when the daylight finally arrives as these two are opposites it causes the viewers to find comfort and safety in the day time.

Section 4

Bodwell and Thompson had the theory that film is “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space”. They’re suggesting that narratives have an almost domino effect due to their happenings and that one thing that happens will later on within the narrative cause something else to happen. This suggests that everything that takes place within a film/media text happens for a reason to create something else to happen later on. I believe this is a theory that can be linked to many mainstream films as most of these follow this theory however niche films that are classed as creative/arty often have events or happenings that take place not to cause something else to happen but to represent something within the narrative and have a hidden meaning. I found that researching this theory was very useful to help me understand many horror films conventions and narrative structures as it helped me notice in films that we watched such as Halloween how this applies by the events taking place of Michael Myers killing his sister leading him to be placed into a mental institute and gain the need for revenge to later want to kill many others such as Laurie. Throughout the film many events unfold where the characters do something that happens to put them in the grasp of Michael which causes him to be able to murder them, such as an accident happening where a character has to leave a room leaving someone else on their own for Michael to pray on.