Narrative theory in relation to Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) and The Crazies

(Breck Eisner, 2010)

Tzventan Todorov
Classical Hollywood Narrative was a theory put forward by Tzventan Todorov.
The basis of this theory is that the majority of films follow a certain pattern. He
suggests that stories begin with an equilibrium, where forces are in balance.
Something then occurs which disrupts this normality and sets in motion a chain
of events. At the end of the story, the problems are solved and a new equilibrium
is formed.
How useful is looking at the Classical Hollywood Narrative for understanding
media texts?
The Classical Hollywood Narrative allows for the audience to make assumptions
of the films genre and how the films plot will develop just by looking at the first
few early points in the pattern of the films narrative.
Halloween does not directly follow the Classical Hollywood Narrative structure, it
contains most of the key points, but it does not follow the same order. There is
no equilibrium at the beginning as this is when we see Michael kill his sister. We
next see Michael escape from the hospital 15 years later. From here, the storyline
begins to follow the Classical Hollywood Narrative more closely, we see a brief
period of normality with Laurie heading off to school, this is disrupted by Michael
beginning to stalk her, the murders take place and the climax of the film occurs
when Laura is fighting to defend herself from Michael. We initially think a new
equilibrium if then found after Dr. Loomis shoots Michael (a total of 6 times)
however this is removed when we see that Michael has survived the encounter
and escaped.
Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who examined hundreds of folk tales to
explore what structures, if any, they shared. He wrote about his findings in his
book Morphology of the Folk Tale published in 1928. He identified 8 character
types commonly found in these tales which we can apply to films:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

The villain the baddie

The hero the main protagonist
The donor provides the hero with an object to help on their quest
The helper aids the hero in their quest
The princess the reward for the hero and possibly the object of the
villains scheme
6. Her father rewards the hero
7. This dispatcher who sends the hero on their way
8. The false hero who hinders rather than helps

It is not unusual for one character to portray multiple roles e.g. the donor and
helper or the father and the dispatcher.
Propps character types are important for understanding media texts because it
allows us to quicker identify who is who in the film, and therefore make
assumptions on where and how the films plot is going to develop.
Propps characters which are evident in Halloween:

The villain Michael Myers

The hero Laurie Strode
The helper Dr. Samuel Loomis
Claude Levi-Strauss

Binary opposition is a theory put forward by Claude Levi-Strauss. These are sets
of values of opposite value for example Good and Evil.
How useful is looking at binary opposition for understanding media texts?
Binary opposition heightens the differences between things. For example, the
Good vs Evil opposition in Halloween. The Good (Laurie) contrasting with the Evil
(Micheal) and makes the other aspect seem greater. We therefor wonder why
there would be such an evil character in the film and when we look at the world
events occurring at the time the film was produced we can understand why it
was then seen as so important. (E.g. brutal murders in the USA around the time
Halloween was released.)
Examples of binary opposition found in Halloween:

Good vs Evil we know that Laurie is innocent and a good person while
Michael, as Dr. Loomis says pure evil
Past vs Present
Natural vs Supernatural
Masculinity vs Femininity
Known vs Unknown we know who Michael is and to an extent why he is
on a murder spree whilst Laurie and the majority of other characters dont
(the exception being Dr. Loomis)
Bordwell and Thompson

In their book Film Art, An Introduction, Bordwell and Thompson define narrative
as a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space.
How useful is looking at this for understanding media texts?
This enables film makers to show us far more story than the running time of a
film allows for and makes the audience able to fill in gaps by making their own
assumptions. E.g. things characters mention but are not actually shown on
screen can be linked to other events in the film.

2 events which occur in Halloween which cause other events to happen are;

When Laurie drops the keys of at Michaels old house, this causes him to
fixate on her.
When Annies boyfriend calls her to pick him up, she drops Lindsey off with
Laurie, possibly saving Lindseys life.

2 events which occur in Halloween that we know happen but which we dont see
are;

When Michael is taken to the mental hospital after killing his sister
Michael coming back to life at the end of the film and escaping.