Narrative Theory In Relation to Halloween (1978) and The Crazies (2010) (Research)

Narrative Theory In Relation to Halloween and The Crazies

There are several different narrative theories that relate to texts. One of them is the Classical Hollywood Theory in which Todorov suggested events take place in a specific order. This looks at the idea of a certain event disrupting something then later following and causing a series of other events. Todorov suggested that everything started with an equilibrium. This is the normality of whatever setting they so happen to be in. An event then occurs to which causes a disruption to their regular equilibrium. He then suggested that after the disruption the characters realise that there is a disruption, attempt to fix it and then there is a reinstatement of the equilibrium or a new equilibrium. Looking at the Classical Hollywood Theory is useful for furthering your understanding of different media texts as it is very often used in films, this means we know what to expect in the narrative. In the first scene of Halloween we see a young boy killing his sister, this is a very unusual beginning and is far from the equilibrium of the story, however after the story is set a few years later, in which we see the small town’s normality, with children going to school etc. This is then later disturbed by the villain. I think the reason for them starting the story with such an abrupt scene is due to the fact that it will entice the audience in. Seeing such a brutal thing being done with no backing story will intrigue the audience, and when they return to the equilibrium a few years later they will be trying to link what happened to what is going on at this moment.

Vladimir Propp is another part of narrative theory. Propp looked over 100 folk tales and picked out from these different character roles which were present. All of these can be applied to any kind of narrative within media text. He came up with a list of 8 different character types, these included

·         Hero  - The main protagonist

·         Villain – The bad character

·         Princess – Often the object behind the villain and the hero’s reward

·         The Princess’s Father – Gives the hero their reward

·         Helper – Assist the hero in their journey

·         Donor – Gives the hero an object or powers

·         The Dispatcher – The person who sets the hero on their journey

·         The False Hero – The person who is believed to be the hero, however they just create problems for the real hero

I feel that although character types are extremely interesting to understand and be aware of, however in terms of understanding narrative I think that it is not too useful. This is because by looking at character types we still are not known of what particular events are going to happen and how they will unravel all we know of is what we expect each individual character to do within their role. Looking at the film Halloween we can see that the Hero is Laurie, She is the main protagonist and is the only one in the film to fight back Mike Myers. Mike Myers is the villain of the film, he kills his sister and then goes back to kill more people. Dr Loomis would be seen as a helper, as he is trying to track down Mike Myers.

Another narrative theory looks at binary oppositions, rather than the order in which events occurred. This was introduced by Claude Levi-Strauss. He looked at opposite values and how we understand what they are against each other. This is what he believed to help develop our understanding of narrative, rather than looking at the events that occurred. An example of this being how we look at natural/supernatural often in horror films.  I think that looking at binary opposition can in a way help us as an audience understand the narrative more, much like Levi-Strauss suggested, what we don’t see is just as important as what we don’t. With us knowing the opposites we are able to see things a lot more clearly, if there is love we can very clearly compare that to another relationship to gather a clear relation of hate. This can help us build our own perspective on characters and relationships, allowing us to decide what we think may happen. Looking at the film Halloween some examples of binary opposition would be good vs evil, this is Laurie and Mike and is the main binary opposition. Past vs present, we see the previous killing Mike Myers convicted as well as him at the present day. Stupid vs smart, this is represented through Laurie and her friends, she is on her feet and aware of what is going on where as other things distract her friends. Unknown and known, this is demonstrated in different ways, one being the known houses and the abandoned house. But also in the fact that we never see Mike Myers’s face when he is older. Innocence vs evil is also another binary opposition used in Halloween, we see what we think to be an innocent young boy kill his sister, but is actually evil and also the fact that is victims are very innocent.

Bordwell and Thomson also looked into narrative; they stated that narrative is defined as “a chain of events in cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space”. This means that events or circumstances can trigger other events, this can be through where or when the event takes place. These make another event occur and so on.  I believe that this may help us understand media texts as it is important for us to be able to link things together, and is something we always do, especially when watching films. By being able to really relate events to each other it gives us as a viewer a way to further understand what is going on, and is a very natural reaction for us.  Looking at the film Halloween an event that we don’t see but know has occurred is Mike Myers being put in an institution to help him. We know this as this is the information we are told by Dr Loomis. It fills the gap we have naturally when wondering what happened to Mikey Myers. Another thing we are informed of through what we see is that the house is later abandoned, we aren’t specifically told this however we see Dr Loomis go in and it is completely empty, as well as the community not wanting to go anywhere near it.

One of the main events that occur in Halloween that then causes other events to happen is Mike Myers killing his sister, this results in him being put in an institution. Another event that causes a different event would be Mike Myers killing Lauries friend, before this she was unaware of what the children were talking about, thinking they were making it up, but after seeing her friend dead she soon jumps on the defence to protect the children, causing her to get in a fight with Mike Myers and Dr Loomis showing up, shooting him.

Horror Genre – The Crazies Questions

Todorov’s Classical Hollywood Narrative looks at how narratives start with an equilibrium, an event then causes a disruption, causing different events to happen and then at the end the equilibrium is reinstated or a new one is created. This is slightly different in the film The Crazies. We are first places in a burning town, everything is on fire and no one is around, this is a very unusual setting, not the normal equilibrium expected when following the Classical Hollywood Narrative. This scene is from the future narrative showing around the middle of the narrative in which everything is burning down, this is in itself is not following the Classical Hollywood Narrative as it is binary and runs constantly forward, not jumping around to different times. We then go to ‘2 days before’ in which we see the regular town at a baseball came. This is then disrupted by an event – the sheriff shooting someone. I feel that The crazies doesn't follow the Classical Hollywood Narrative due to the flashback at the beginning but also as at the end there is not a reinstatement of the equilibrium.

Looking at Propp’s character types several can be identified in the film The Crazies. There are very few long term characters due to the nature of the film, characters die off fast. The hero throughout this film would be David, the sheriff. He is the main protagonist in the film and is out to help everyone survive, especially his wife. The deputy, Russell may also be seen as a hero as he is the one that helps David and Judy survive at the end by sacrificing his life to let them past. Russell and David can also be seen as the donors, they are the ones that supply each other and who they are helping with weapons to attack and escape situations. This leads on to how Judy and Russell could be seen as the helpers, they are the ones who follow David along and assist when needed. The villains and false heroes of this film would be the government. This is because the government are the ones that actually caused this outbreak to occur and didn’t react fast enough to stop all of the damage. They may also be seen as false heroes as they try to give the impression that they are actually helping and killing everyone is the right thing to do as it is the only solution however it isn’t as they are just killing innocent people. Judy could also be seen as the princess in this narrative. This is due to how everything David is doing is in the mind set to save Judy. He doesn’t put her in danger; he is the one to protect her and wants her to live.

Binary opposition can be found a lot throughout The Crazies. Examples of these include –

·         Past/Present

o   This looks at how we initially are shown the burning down of the town, with everything on fire and being destroyed. This is in fact from the middle of the narrative to which we are then shows two days before this specific event occurred. This is a regular civilised town. Different links of past to present are made throughout the rest of the film, the idea of this is for us to make links further engaging us, the audience into the narrative.

·         Normal/Strange

o   We see a clear line between the infected (known as the crazies) and non-infected. This represents the normal humans and the infected as their behaviour is completely off, the infected can’t think straight and all they want to do is kill everyone else, which is a very unusual and strange desire. This is also represented through lifestyle, in the scene when we see Judy come home with David and Russell to collect the car and she is taking down the washing on the washing line, she is trying to make it seem as normal as possible however the situation is completely different and wont be the same as her lifestyle before, she was just trying to find comfort in her normal situation.

·         Good/Evil

o   This is a fairly obvious binary opposition in this film. We can see that David and Judy are good they want things to return to normal and are fighting for their survival, helping whoever they can on the way. The government on the other hand are killing off innocent people in effect to try stopping the infection from spreading, when they were the ones to release it in the first place.

·         Freedom/Trapped

o   When looking over the map view we see often, the town is very isolated, it isn't near anything else and no other towns seem to be present. This shows how they small town has some kind of independence, in a sense that they do as they please in their small town and nothing unusual ever happens. When the infection spreads everyone is under lock-down, no one can leave, they start to feel very trapped which is different from what they are used to.

·         Order/Chaos

o   In the town, the first appearance is that it is well run, it has a stable sheriff and deputy, as well as a good set of doctors and nurses and a community that know each other and work together. This is completely thrown upside down when the infected start to merge, they are going against everything that ever stood, people are dying and fighting for their lives. The people in the town have been turned against one another. This can be demonstrated when the people are being placed in the camp by the government but it isn't working as people all around are being killed and others are trying to escape the fence.

There are three main different time durations within a film, these are screen duration, plot duration and story duration. Looking at the film The Crazies these are the following times.

·         Screen duration – 92 minutes, the running time of the film.

·         Plot duration – 3 days, this is from when the infection is first discovered to the point when we see the town blow up and Judy and David walk away.

·         Story duration – Years. This is hard to tell a precise time as you have to think of other aspects in the film, such as the virus being created in the first place – this would have taken months. Judy being pregnant – pregnancy lasts around 9 months. It would have also taken time for the virus to spread when it hit the water. 

Several events take place before the film starts to us viewers, this is because we don’t need to know about that particular event in detail we just need to know it happened as they often cause later events. Examples of this would be the plane crashing and spreading the virus. This event occurs as if it didn’t there would be no infection spreading; however we don’t need to know about the event in itself and it taking place. Another major event that occurred before the film starts to the viewers is Judy being pregnant. This has an impact as she is later separated from David as she has a fever which is believed to be connected to the infection, however its due to her being pregnant but the government army organising the camp is unaware of this.

Looking at the film we can see several different events that occur in a different time and space to what we are shown. An example being when Russell later returns with David and Judy, we as an audience know by the way he is acting that he is in fact infected, and due to previous scenes we know that the government have been searching and separating the infected. Russell doesn't say where he has been but it is clear to us as viewers he was taken by the government to possibly be killed, however he escaped. Another example would be when Judy opens the trailer to unveil loads of dead bodies, we are not shown them being killed however due to our perception we know that they would have been killed in mass by the government in their attempt to stop the virus, they would have been killed if they were infected or not.

Horror Genre – Halloween (1978) Questions

The start of the film Halloween demonstrates several different common conventions of the horror genre; these include POV shots in which we follow the murderer around, seeing from his eyes. This means that we don’t get to see who it is, adding anticipation. Looking at shot type, we always have a very limited view, again creating suspense, as we can’t see everything we wish. This is also affected by the lighting. At the start it is night time, which means very low key lighting; this convention is very typical in the horror genre. Props are extremely important in horrors, in this horror we see the use of a knife. Also the narrative at the beginning tends to follow the common technical code conventions in horrors. We experience a murder first hand, as a flashback, and then we are placed in the real world.

In the film Halloween we see that it is set in a suburban, small town. This connotes the isolation which is very often present in horror films. This makes it slightly more realistic and therefore allows the audience to imaging themselves in the situation. During the film we also see certain places such as the graveyard and mental institution. These are all seemed to be typically ‘scary’ places and used commonly throughout horror films.

The most innocent character that we are introduced to is Laurie. This is represented through several different things. Her clothing is very conservative, we see her, most of the time, in jeans and a turtle neck top, this is very different compared to what her friends are wearing. We also notice that all of her friends talk about boys, having boyfriends and sex. This makes Laurie very uncomfortable and doesn’t wish to participate in the conversations. We learn that Laurie doesn’t have a boyfriend and just the fact that her friend may tell a boy that Laurie likes him makes her panic. When Laurie is in the car smoking she starts to vigorously cough, demonstrating how she is not used to smoking, and then when they approach her friend’s dad she is worried about him smelling the cigarettes. School is a high priority for her, an example being when she forgot to get her books and has to run back and get them.  All of this demonstrates how Laurie stands out from the rest of the characters we see, she isn’t like what the typical teenager is like and is seen as ‘virginal’ an innocent character.

Halloween had a huge impact on the film industry. The film was cheap to make, meaning they didn’t require a huge amount of money for special effects or actors, however it still was a huge success for the ‘slasher’ horror genre and made a large profit. This film also started the craze for slasher films influencing several more to be made in hope of such a great success.

Some of the films that were created after the success of slasher film Halloween includes, Friday the 13^th ( 1980 – Sean S Cunningham), The Burning (1981 – Tony Maylam), Prom Night (1980 – Paul Lynch) and Terror Train (1980 – Roger Spottiswoode)

The film Halloween created a new list of plot rules in which slasher films began to follow, these include

  1. A past traumatic event occurs, in which a psychotic killer is made

  2. The psychotic killer returns to where the event happened
  3. Killer then spots a group of teenagers, of either sex, and stalks and eventually kills them

  4. There is a ‘final girl’ in which one of the female characters survives, however they often have boy like features and are           virginal.

Androgynous characters are often common in slasher horror films, in Halloween this character is Laurie. Laurie dresses very boy like and conservatively, as I stated previously, also her name is unisex. Her features also give a boy like feel, this is because of her square shaped face and sharp jaw, but also due to her tone of voice, which is considerably deep for a female. Her character also gives this effect as she decides to fight back against Mike Myers.

Slasher films have a tendency to have a ‘reactionary sexual agenda’. This is the idea that virginal characters will be the ones to live; any other characters that are having sex will die. However although it may seem as if Halloween follows the tendency with Laurie a virginal character surviving and the rest dying, film director John Carpenter disagreed. He went on to explain how the reasoning behind this is that all the other characters were distracted, not fully paying attention to what is going on around them and therefore easier targets, where as Laurie was very aware of what was going on therefore acted the way she did to save herself and the children. This is also demonstrated in the fact that the killer, Mike Myer is in fact always hunting for Laurie, she is the target where as the others are just in his way. Leading on from this it is questionable as to why Mike Myer in fact killed his sister. Mike kills his sister just after her having sex with her boyfriend, and because of this we can be perceived to believe that she is killed because of her having sex, as well as this being demonstrated with the motion of the knife when Mike killer her, however John Carpenter (the director) disagreed, again focusing on the fact he wasn’t going with the idea of sexual agenda. He states very simply that the reason behind him killing his sister, much like all the other characters he killed is purely because he is evil.