Narrative theory in relation to Halloween and The Crazies

    The term ‘classical Hollywood narrative’ comes from the theory Tzvetan Tadorov suggested, which is that stories start with equilibrium where any potentially opposing forces are in balance; this is then disrupted by an event, then setting off a chain of other events. Then the problem will be solved and balance is restored. This theory is fairly helpful for understanding media texts as looking at most movies that is what happens, the balance is gone and needs restoring so it is restored. This could be any type of events depending on what the genre of the movie is; however they all seem to have the ‘classical Hollywood narrative’.

 I feel the movie ‘Halloween’ follows this classical Hollywood narrative. The movie begins with a normal Halloween night, until Michael comes home and kills his sister Judith; this is the disruption of the opposing forces.  Then 15 years later Michael steals the car that was meant to take him away and starts following Laurie Strode. Laurie’s two friends, Annie and Lynda, bother get murdered (Annie has her throat slit in the car as she is about to drive to pick her boyfriend up.  Lynda and her boyfriend bob both get murdered after having sex with one another, bob is stabbed and Lynda is chocked by a phone wire); this is the chain of events that occur. Then when Michael comes for Laurie she manages to keep saving herself until Dr. Samuel Loomis shows up to save Laurie at the last minute, by shooting Michael several times causing him to fall off the balcony; this is the thing that restores the order. However when we see the ground where Michael feel for the second time, he is no longer there, this means that Halloween sticks to the classic Hollywood narrative but there is a cliff hanger and an opening to have another film.

   Vladimir Propp came up with a list of the different characters seen in a movie, he deicide on the list because he looked at 100s of folk tales and came to the conclusion that they all has the same 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. The 8 character roles are:

·         The villain(s) – the ‘baddie’

·         The hero – our main protagonist and victor

·         The donor – who provides and object with some magical property

·         The helper – who aids the hero

·         The princess – (the sought for some person) ‘reward’ for the hero and object of the villain’s schemes

·         Her father – who rewards the hero

·         The dispatcher – who sends the hero on his way

·         The false hero – the double agent who hinders the hero rather than helping him

This is a fairly useful bit of information to help understand media texts; this is because the characters in the media texts can all be put into one or more of these categories. It helps us understand the motive of the character and helps you look in more detail at the media text and unpick it a little more, it also helps the storyline. This is because if you are able to identify what characters fit with each character roles, you can see how the story is going to go and the watcher can play more attention to what the character is doing and see how they fit with the character role they have been given. In the movie ‘Halloween’ the most obvious character roles are the villain (in this case it would be Michael), and the hero (in Halloween I believe there is more than one hero, to me Laurie Strode and Dr. Samuel Loomis are the heroes. Laurie was a hero because she tried to protect the children, Tommy and Lindsey, and Dr. Samuel because he saved Laurie at the last moment).

   Claude Levi-Strauss came up with the narrative structure of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite vales, for example good and evil, good is the opposite of evil. Binary oppositions looked deeper into the arrangements of themes as appose to the order in which events were arranged in the plot. For example, some of the binary oppositions of a science fiction film that are created by narrative would be:

·         Earth and Space

·         Good and Evil

·         Humans and Aliens

·         Past and Present

·         Normal and Strange

·         Known and Unknown

This is a good way to help us understand media texts because by categorising the binary opposites of a media text we can work out the genre of a movie and focus on the plot more instead of putting all our focus on the events that happen. Examples of binary opposites in the film ‘Halloween’ would be:

·         Good and Evil

·         Life and Death

·         innocence and Guilty

·         Selflessness and Selfishness

·         Safe and Dangerous

   Bordwell and Thompson define narrative as “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space”. This means that a narrative usually begins with one situation, then a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect; then a new situation appears that brings the end to the narrative. When we watch movie we see the events and try to make sense of what is happening. We do this by connecting the events that have happened, we do this so we can see a line of cause and effect. Even if there is no obvious connection, we will make one. This is why it is it useful when trying to understand media texts. Examples of events that happened and then lead to another even in the film ‘Halloween’ would be:

·         Michael wouldn’t have been arrested if he hadn’t of stabbed his sister, and his sister would have been stabbed if she hadn’t of had sex. If Michael was never arrested and put in asylum none of the drama with Laurie and her friends would have happened.

·         If Dr. Samuel Loomis had stayed at the house that Michael had been hiding I, he would have never seen Tommy and Lindsey, the children Laurie was babysitting, run out of the house screaming and he would never have saved Laure.

In the film ‘Halloween’ there are certain events that we don’t see happen but we do know that happen, for example we know that Michael took the headstone of his sister (Judith) and we know this even has happened because we see the headstone appeared at the head of the bed where Laurie’s friend (Annie) is lying dead. We don’t see him take it though, all we see are Dr. Samuel and Sheriff Leigh looking at a grave without a headstone. Another example of this would be: we don’t actually see Michael brake out of the asylum and get into the car, we just see him driving away in it.  

Questions on the film “Halloween” (1978)

1. How does the start exemplify a common technical code convention of the horror genre?
It exemplifies a common technical code convention of the horror genre because it starts off with the evil or bad character finding a reason to start killing and show the reason and the killer’s first killing. This results in the beginning of the killings in the movie. Also the type of weapon that is used by Michael Myers, this weapon is a butcher knife, now seen commonly in slasher films.

2. How does the setting fit in with the horror genre?
The setting begins off being a night setting which is considered creepy, also is in a remote and isolate place, the rest of the film is also set in an isolated town, this gives the setting an eerie feel. The main events of the film happen at night again giving the film a creepy and dark atmosphere. This fits in with the horror genre because the genre of horror aims to make people feel unconfutable and creped out and the movie is set in places that would make the view feel this way.

3. What iconography of “innocents” do we see or hear early on?
The main girl “Laurie Strode” is seen to be innocent to most of her friend, for example she doesn’t fit her stereotypical female character code as she wear trousers instead of skirts. Also her innocent’s lies with her not going out to parties and not having sex.

4. What was the main industry impact of Halloween?
As the film “Halloween” was so cheaply made and had such a success, this inspired other “slasher” type movies to be made on a cheap budged.

5. Name some “slasher” films which followed on from Halloween.
Some other “slasher” films that carried on from Halloween were: Friday the 13^th, prom night, the burning, happy birthday to me, graduation day and the slayer.

6. What are the four plot rules of the “slasher” film sub-genre which Halloween began?
The four plot rules of “slasher” films are as following:
- A traumatic event in the past that creates a psychopathic killer.
- The killer returns to the site of the event, usually on a specific date in the present that allows the makers to use a calendar motif in the title.
- The killer stalks and graphically kills a group of obnoxious and stupid teens of both sexes, usually with some kind of blade, often a garden or farm implement.
- A “final girl” survives, usually boyish and virginal, to thwart the killer, although he never entirely vanquished.

7. Give three ways in which Laurie is androgynous?
- Laurie speaks in a deeper tone of voice then her other female friends, she has a more mainly voice then most females.
- She covers her flash with trousers and long blouses, this shows she wears more boyish clothes as oppose to stereotypical female clothes. With the exception of the one occasions she wore a skirt, but event hen it was a long skirt still covering her.
- Laurie fights back when she is being attack, most female character just run, resulting in their death.

8. What does the extract mean by “a reactionary sexual agenda”?
The extract means that the killer targets sexual active people. In Halloween Laurie survives because she isn’t distracted by sex unlike her friends who all became the victims of Michael Myers. Annie was killed while going to pick her boyfriend up and Lynda and her boyfriend Bob were killed after engaging in sex.

9. How does the director, John Carpenter, counter the suggestions the Halloween had a reactionary sexual agenda?
John Carpenter said “I didn’t mean to put an end to the sexual revolution”. He also pointed out the reasons why the teenagers on Halloween die because they weren’t paying attention and Michael Myers saw them as easy targets.

10. Why does Mike Myers kill his sister?
It was as that Mike killed his sister because he was trying to imitate the act of sex with the knife. Meaning he misunderstood the primal scene of his sister having sex with her boyfriend.

Questions on the film “The Crazies” (2010)

1. Does the crazies follow the CHN? Why or why not?
The crazies does not follow the CHN, this is because at the beginning of the film it shows a scene that shows what the town will be like later. It shows the town where the film is set on fire and in wreckage. As CHN is the film having a beginning then a situation, a problem in the middle and then a new situation. The hero is identified at the beginning of the movie, and then the goal is shown. An obstacle is then shown and the film finished with the hero achieving their goal and tackling the obstacle.

2. How many of Propp’s character types can be identified in the film?
The characters that fit Propp’s character types in the crazies are:
- David as “the hero”, he is the sheriff in town.
- Russell as “the helper”, he is the deputy sheriff to David.
- Another “helper” would be Judy, David’s wife. It could be argued that she is another “hero” as she survives till the end, it could also be argued that she has more importance then Russell.
- Also Becca can be seen as a “helper” as she tries to help but gets killed through the film by one of the infected people.
- The infected people and the government would be seen as “the villains”, the infected people try to kill the on infected and the government are the ones that made and spread the disease causing all the trouble.
- Russell could also be seen as “the donor” as he gives his life to make sure David and Judy live, as he finds out he has been infected.

3. List five examples of binary opposites in the film and explain them briefly.
- Good and Evil: the good in the film the crazies would be the non-infected people, as they have not been contaminated therefore don’t kill the innocent. The evil would be seen as the infected as they try and kill everyone they can and also the government as they caused the contamination of the town and also because they sent the arm to basically kill most people.
- Government and People: the government send in the army who are basically allowed to kill anyone. They take away all the people from the infected town of Ogden Marsh and they put people that have a chance of being infected together, causing some innocent people to catch the disease and putting innocent people at more of a risk.
- Life and Death: as the infected die they are re born to be “monsters” who try to kill the non-infected. The government send in the army to kill the infected, but whilst doing that they kill many of the living. The living have to kill the infected to survive. This binary opposite is seen in the majority of horror films.
- Strong and Weak – as the characters (David, Russell, Judy and Becca) fight for survival they remain strong and the end result shows the strongest of the characters surviving. Characters such as Becca are shown to be weak as she loses the battle and is killed by one of the infected. However Russell fights on, until himself becomes infected, he then sacrifices himself so his fellow survivors can live on. This would be seen as strong.
- Peace and War: the characters try and find peace so they can live on however the find themselves fighting for their survival in the war against the infected.

4. Identify the three ‘durations’ and give an estimate of the time each duration covers.
The three durations are the story duration, the screen duration and the plot duration. The story is shown over three days, the scree duration is how long the film goes on for and it goes on for 92 minutes. And the plot duration can very as this would count as how long it took to make the virus and for it to spread etc.

5. Give two examples of events that cause later events in the film but which occur before the film “starts”.
One of the events that cause later events is the transportation of the “Trixie” virus, when David and Russell fond the plane crashed into the water also when David shoots Rory, the first person to have caught the virus.
At the start of the movie it shows the town how it will be by then end of the movie, this shows that disaster will happen in the movie.

6. List two events the 92 minute film that happen in a different time and space to the one we are shown.

Everyone that catches the virus does so in s different time and space from where we are shown. Also we don’t see the infected make their way to the next town we just see a news report about it.