Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

In relation to Halloween (Carpenter, 1978) 

and The Crazies (Eisner, 2010).

The term Classical Hollywood Narrative is mostly to do with equilibrium and disequilibrium, as seen in the vast majority of Hollywood films where the film begins with normality which is disrupted, causing the disequilibrium which is resolved and becomes the new equilibrium at the end. For this theory, we looked at Tzvetan Todorov who came up with this theory. It’s moderately useful when understanding media texts as many films comply to it, almost to the point it has become film cliché. However, film genres such as horror films go against it, as the ending, new equilibrium often isn’t the same as the start as characters die and survivors are left with an everlasting trauma of what happened. This is seen in The Crazies and Halloween and is also the reason that they don’t follow CHN.

 Vladimir Propp devised a list of character types which most films follow, such as the villain, the hero, the false hero, the donor, the helper, the dispatcher, the princess and her father. These character types are helpful when looking at media texts because they can be applied to all different types of narrative and is the basis of heroes and villains in plots. The character types evident in Halloween and The Crazies are these apart from the princess’ father and the donor. Halloween also doesn’t have a false hero as both Laurie and Dr Loomis are heroes rather than false ones.

 The term binary opposition basically means opposites in a media text, opposites such as good and evil, hero and villain etc. For this narrative structure, we looked at Claud Levi Strauss, as binary opposites are frequently present in the horror genre and will help identify understand them within media text so knowing about them will be particularly useful. Halloween contains examples of binary oppositions, such as:

Innocence and Evil -  The 'innocent' teenagers against the personification of evil, Mike Myers

Past and Present - The events from mikes past catch up in the present when he escapes and begins murdering again.

Known and Unknown - Talk of 'The bogeyman' on Halloween when little is known about him, and is instead used in reference to Mike Myers.

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