Narrative Theory in Relation to Halloween and The Crazies

CHN

CHN or 'Classical Hollywood Narrative' is a narrative structure largely used in western films today. It has a clear beginning, middle and end. This corresponds to Tzvetan Todorov's narrative theory. Todorov was a Bulgarian Structualist Linguist and came up with the theory that stories begin with an equilibrium (status quo) which is then disrupted by a disequilibrium and then resolved to create a new equilibrium. I think the CHN is quite important to look at as you can see aspects of it in pretty much everything, and i think that understanding the basis of CHN sets you up for understanding media texts. 

'Halloween' is an example of a film that doesn't follow this narrative structure.  At the beginning you have a disequilibrium comes in the form of Michael Myers killing his sister which is not how a typical CHN would begin. However, it then goes into the future in which we are shown an equilibrium of everyday life. This is then disturbed when Myer's escapes and starts killing people. He is finally caught and shot and the killings stop, but we aren't shown what happens after he disappears, but we can assume there is now an equilibrium as the killings have stopped but it is an uneasy equilibrium in the way that you don't know when he is going to come back. I think the reason this doesn't follow the CHN is because it is a horror film and they can somehow get away with it due to the fact that people don't really want to see a nice ending to a horror film.

Character Types-Propp

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who lookeed at 100's of examples of folk stories to see if they followed any of the same structures. After this, he identified 8 character types and 31 narrative functions. Below are the 8 character types:

-The villain(s)-the baddie

-The hero-main protagonist and victor

-The donor-provides an object with some magical property

-The helper-aids the hero

-The princess-sought after person and reward for the hero 
-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 instead of helping him

In Halloween the villain is obviously evident in the form of Michael Myers and the hero is Laurie. Although some may say she is the princess as she needs saving towards the end, she does fight back and is smart and aware so she doesn't need saving as much as a typical 'princess' character type would. The helper would probably be DR. Loomis as he knows about Myers and looks for him and wants him to be caught, and ultimately, he is the one who saves Laurie. 

Binary Opposition

Binary opposition are the sets of opposite values that reveal the structure of media texts. Claude Levi-Strauss proposed this theory and it is quite important as we make connections. They found in Sci-fi films, for example, that the main pattern of binary oppositions were Human vs Alien/ Earth vs Space and Good vs Evil. You can apply this to any genre which does, in turn, help you understand the text. 

5 examples of this in Halloween are- 

-Good vs Evil (Laurie vs Michael)

-Past vs Present (You see Michael killing his sister and then it jumps forward to the present times)

-Unknown vs Known (The known is that a killer is on the loose although even that is found out late into the film, but then unknown is whether he is supernatural as he doesn't die when he is shot several times)

-Smart vs Stupid (Laurie is smart and logical and ends up surviving yet her friends all die as they are distracted)

-Innocence vs not innocent (Laurie is virginal and innocent in many ways and lives whereas her sexually active friends all die)