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)

Horror Genre Chart

Setting

The setting of horror films seem to follow a similar trend. Below is a list of typical horror film settings:

1)Creepy cabin in the woods

2)largely at night time

3)Isolated places e.g. Desert, mountainous areas, forests

4)Small town/suburbs

5)Sight of a previous accident/scene of horrific crime

6)Haunted house

                                

7)Graveyard

                             

8)Theme park/carnival

                               

9)Campsite

                                

10)Hospital

                                

11)Near a body of water e.g. Lake/Ocean 

Technical codes

Technical codes (lighting/mise en scene/framing/cropping) play an important role in all films, including horror. Technical codes of horror films include:

1)Low-key lighting for atmosphere

2)Mise en scene for horror films would generally include:

-Creepy setting

-fiery effects (explosions)

- Weapons (knives/chainsaws/guns etc)

-Family heirloom or old artifact

3)Camera shots are used to narrate what the characters don't say themselves and to put the audience in their shoes:

-Low angle shots are used to give the impression that the character they are focusing on is more powerful in that situation.

-High angle shots are the reverse- they make the character appear less powerful.

-Cropping allows the audience to see only what the character does and limits what they can see of the surrounding are- this makes for better jump-scares as they can't see what is coming.

-Likewise, it also sometimes allows us to see what the character themselves cant see, creating tension and want in the audience to let the character know.

Iconography

Sharp blades (knives/chainsaws etc) come hand-in-hand with blood and are highly iconographical of horror movies. They connote danger and death and are almost always wielded by a villain (usually a psychopathic killer) or connote protection (usually by the victims trying to save themselves). Guns are less familiar to the horror genre than hey are to action films as the killers in horror films usually want to induce as much pain on their victims as possible so opt for using blades (usually kitchen or garden implements).

Narrative

The narrative of horror films usually goes like one of the options below:

1)Typical of 'slasher' horrors:

-Traumatic event creates psychopathic killer

-A group of obnoxious teens go to a secluded spot to party/get away

-Killer stalk and kills them graphically

-Virginal girl (final girl) survives to thwart killer

-Killer is never fully killed (maybe end shot of back of killer or them stalking new victims)

2) Typical of supernatural horrors:

-Family move into new house

-Strange things start happening

-Research and find out the house has a horrific history

-Happenings get worse

-Call in a medium/priest

-Thwart evil in the house

-New equilibrium (however sometimes the evil still remains whether that is inside the house or in the body of one of the characters)

3) Typical of Zombie horrors

-Scenes of everyday life

-Disrupted by outbreak of disease

-Follows a character/characters through surviving the new, normally isolated, world as they battle the infected

-Come face to face with a problem

-Resolution

-World is either saved or ends with the character(s) carrying on to survive

Characters

In horror films you tend to have the same type of characters re-used over and over. Here are a few:

The killer- usually a psychopath of some sort. The killer is usually traumatized by a past event from their childhood which turns them into this psychotic killer. Nearly all killers in horror films wield a blade of some sort (Freddie Kruger has his knives, Ed Gein-Texas chainsaw massacre- has his chainsaw etc). They normally stalk their victims for a while before killing them and normally go after individuals rather than a whole group at once. In most films (especially films with planned sequels) the killer is deemed immortal- all efforts to kill him are useless.

The jock- Usually a fit male character with the gorgeous girlfriend. He may be a bit of  a player and is usually quite cocky and jokes around. This character tends to try and save 
everyone but in doing so, dies themselves. 

The attractive (somewhat of a 'get around') female character- 
This female role is usually sexualised a lot, and although they
 are usually dating the Jock, they are portrayed as being somewhat 
of a get around and is very flirtatious. This girl is almost always 
the first to die (usually as she is distracted by sex).

The virginal ('final girl')- This girl is hardly 
sexualised and is normally the last to die or is 
the only one who survives. This is due to the 
fact that she is often more observant than the 
others and often has quite manly yet feminine 
traits too. She is often the one to try and thwart 
the killer and she actually manages to outrun them 
and fight back.

Themes

Typical themes in horror films are as follows: 


Supernatural/demonic- A lot of horror films have a supernatural theme to them so ghosts and poltergeists, but they also have a lot of demonic possessions too.

The evil within- Like the last point, a lot of horrors have something to do with someone who is possessed or a demon inside.

Binary oppositions- Binary oppositions play a big part in horror films as you can have Good vs Evil/Known vs Unknown/ Human vs Alien etc.

Narrative structures and The Crazies (Eisner, 2010)

1.     Does the crazies follow the CHN? Why or why not?

The Crazies doesn’t really follow the CHN as it starts with a disruptive scene instead of one showing equilibrium. It then goes back to an equilibrium and follows the CHN until the end as it appears to be a new equilibrium but then it turns out to be an unhappy ending instead of a happy one you would expect with the CHN. This is mainly because it is a Horror film and with the horror genre you don’t expect the ending to be happy.

2.     How many of Propp’s character types can be identified in the film?

This film doesn’t really seem to have many main characters, so you can only identify about four:

 

The Hero- David (He tries to stop the water flow to the town and he goes back to save his wife)

The Princess- Some would argue that any innocent people are the ‘princess’ as they all need saving, but you could say that Judy is a princess as she needs saving from the school, but then she is a Doctor meaning she is smart and is quite aware of what is going on.

The helper- You could say Russell is the helper as he saves David a few times and gives him the rifle.

The false hero- Again, Russell could be used for this character too as he does help the others but then some actions (due to the disease) means that he ends up hindering the other’s survival. However, he does save David when he is in the nursery and he does draw the military’s attention away from Judy and David by sacrificing himself so that they can escape.

The Villain- There isn’t one prominent villain as such, but you could say the Government is the ‘bad guy’ because they are the ones who manufactured this bio-weapon and are the ones killing innocent people.

 3.     List five examples of binary oppositions in the film and explain them briefly.

Good and bad- This could be the innocent people of the film against the Government and, even though it isn’t their fault, the crazy people.

Light and Dark- Light, open spaces are often considered to be safer than dark, confined spaces, but here the open spaces are more dangerous as they are more easily seen by the helicopter for example whereas in the shadows they are hidden.

Known and unknown- The characters know people are getting sick but they don’t know why until later on in the film. Even then, when they find out why, they don’t know if it really has gone airborne or not.

Infected and Uninfected- This could be another binary opposition as, while the majority of the film is involving the government, the main fight for the uninfected people is the infected people and trying to survive.

Government and civilians- The main underlying fight is between the government and the civilians of Ogden Marsh seeing as the government are the people that started this whole thing off and the civilians are the ones who had the fallout from it.

4.     Give three ‘duration's’ and give an estimate of the time each duration covers.

A couple of years- Even though we don’t see it, for a biological weapon to be manufactured, it would have taken at least a couple of years in order to manufacture it and study it and test it. This is the story duration.

3 days- The actual film that we see (the plot duration) is set over about three days from the first event on the rounder’s pitch, to when the city is destroyed and David and Judy make it to the next town.

101 minutes- This is the screen duration, meaning the actual film running time.

5.     Give two examples of events that cause later events in the film but which occur before the film ‘starts’.

The making of the biological weapon- This is one of the main events that happen as it is where this all began. Even though we didn’t see this actually happen, we know it did because we are told about it in the film.

The plane crashing- Like the making of the weapon, we are only told about the plane crashing and don’t witness the event ourselves. We do however see the plane wreck under the surface of the water and see the damage it does when its load is leaked into the water source.

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

Russell escaping the quarantine and preparing to leave the town- We don’t see Russell being infected and we don’t see him escaping from the quarantine area, but we see, from Judy’s point of view, a car knocking down the fence where people are quarantined and everyone escaping, which Russell refers to later on. He also says about his van tires being spiked and he looks for water in his van, meaning he must have escaped and gone home and stocked up his van in order to leave Ogden Marsh.

The uninfected people being shot and burnt- We don’t actual see any of the people, who are supposedly uninfected, get shot and burnt, but when Judy and David return to the gas station they find shell casings scattered on the floor and burnt bodies in the back of the trucks with the wristbands that the uninfected were wearing.

Halloween

    

      1. How does the start exemplify a common technical code convention of the horror genre?

Myers' as a child dressed in a clown suit shortly after killing his sister

The start sets up the story and introduces the killer, explaining Myers’ psychosis. The p.o.v shot from behind Myers mask creates a scarier and restricted narration along with low-key lighting and sound motif.

Myers' watches Laurie walk away on a suburban street

2. How does the setting fit with the horror genre?

The film is set in a suburban town largely at night (which is typical of horror films as night is considered scarier) and is set on Halloween night which is naturally associated with horror/scariness.

Laurie(left) with her friends

3. What iconography of ‘innocence’ do we hear or see early on?

Michael puts on a clown mask which makes him seem innocent in the way that children dress up for Trick or Treating. Also, Laurie is mocked by her friends for being virginal and (too) smart.

Halloween poster

4.What was the main industry impact of Halloween?

It was cheap to make and made a lot of profit which meant a ‘slew of slasher movies followed’.

5. Name some ‘slasher’ films which followed on from Halloween.

(1979)-Friday The 13^th/ (1980)-Bloody Valentine/(1981)Friday The 13^th 2/ (1981)-The Prowler.

 6. What are the four plot rules of the ‘slasher’ film sub-genre which Halloween began

. 

   1.A traumatic event creates a killer.

   2. The killer returns to the site of event-usually on a specific date.

   3.Killer stalk and graphically kills obnoxious teens-usually with a blade.
    4.‘Final girl’ survives (usually boyish or virginal) and thwarts killer-although they are never truly vanquished.

 7. Give three ways in which Laurie is androgynous.

1. Her clothes aren’t as sexual as the other girls in the film     
-she wears a long sleeved blouse that is done right up with         either a long skirt and thick tights or long trousers and shoes 
with a small heel on them.

2.  Her actions-she isn’t like the other girls in the film- she does scream but she can get away and fights back whereas the other girls were easy to kill.

3.  Her name could be for both a boy or a girl.

8. What does the extract mean by ‘a reactionary sexual agenda’?

Viewers argued that Carpenter’s meaning behind the film was that sexual teens will somehow be punished and made a connection between sex and death.

9. How does the director, John Carpenter, counter the suggestion that Halloween had a reactionary sexual agenda?

Carpenter draws attention to the fact that Laurie was Meyer's intended victim all along even though she was the ‘purest’ of all the girls in the film. He also stated that the other teens merely died because they weren’t paying attention. 

10. Why does Mike Myers kill his sister?

The main understanding is that Myers killed his sister because he misunderstood the act of her having sex and tried to re-create it by using the knife to stab her in the same ‘plunging’ motion. However, some people believe it was purely because he is evil, which is repeatedly stated by 'Loomis' in the film.