Narrative Theory in relation to Halloween and The Crazies

The term Classic Hollywood Narrative refers to the idea that most films follows the basic narrative structure of a beginning, middle and end. Todorov suggested that all stories begin with an equilibrium which is then disturbed by a disequilibrium. A series of events the happen which are then restored into a new equilibrium. The Classic Hollywood Narrative is useful to help understand media text as it helps us understand why events within have happened. It helps us understand the characters and how they deal with incidents that occur within the story and why these incidents have happened. Halloween does not follow the Classic Hollywood Narrative. At the beginning of the film we are shown a previous event that brought the killings on, where Mike Myers kills his sister. After this we are taken to the present day where he has got out of the mental institute he was kept it and now he is on another rampage. The killer’s main character in this film is Laurie from the start, but without any initial reason. In the end, she survives whereas her friends so not because they were not focused on their surroundings. Laurie is the ‘final girl’ that strives to make a stand against her attacker and then wins. Although she manages a variety of times, she still does not manage to kill him and the film ends of a cliff-hanger as he gets away once again. I think this ending has been carried out to cause suspense and scare the audience even more as well as it leaves the film open for sequels. The Crazies does not follow the Classic Narrative Structure as it starts off with a disequilibrium wherein Rory is shot after going on the baseball pitch supposedly drunk.  Even at the end, there is no resolution.

Propp was a Russian critic who examined 100s of examples of folk tales to see if they shared any structures. In conclusion, he identified 8 different character roles. Propp’s various character types consisted of: The villains, the hero, the donor, the helper, the princess, her father, the dispatcher and the false hero. These character types help us identify and relate to characters in media text but not really the text itself. Not enough about the actually plot can be given through just knowing these character types. In Halloween it is obvious that the villain character is Michael Myers. Laurie is the hero in the aspect that she is the main protagonist. In ‘The Crazies’ Propp’s character types can be identified through: the Government as Villains, David and Judy as Heroes, Russell as the Helper, Donor as well as False Hero and Becca as the Princess.

Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. It was Claude Levi-Strauss who looked at this narrative structure. Binary oppositions are useful for understanding media texts as they outline the genre and give the audience a sense of what to expect. Although they do not show the order in which events are arranged in the plot but they do give a deeper understanding of themes within it. Within the film ‘Halloween’, 5 binary oppositions we see include: Good vs Evil, Normal vs Strange, Alert vs Distracted, Innocent vs Guilty and Past vs Present. In ‘The Crazies’, 5 binary oppositions are Good vs Evil, Science vs Nature, Past vs Present, Known vs Unknown, Normal vs Abnormal.

Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space”, meaning that the events within the film effect the rest of the time and space of it. For them, a narrative typically begins with one situation, a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally a new situation arises that brings the end of the narrative. I think this is a very important narrative structure in terms of looking at media texts as it shows clearly the consequences of action within. It shows exactly how and why certain parts have turned out the way they have, linking actions together. 2 events that happen in the film ‘Halloween’ that cause other events to happen are when Michael kills his sister and then goes on to mass kill in a similar way for the same reasons and when Laurie first goes near the abandoned house and Myers follows her from then on. In ‘The Crazies’ 2 such events would be the crashing of the plane which contaminated the water and how the first victim, Rory, became infected. 2 events that we know happened in the film but do not see are when they explain that Myers was kept in some kind of asylum where he was studied by psychiatrists and his release. The plane crash and weapon making in ‘The Crazies’ are 2 events that happened but are not shown on screen.