Narrative theory in relation to Halloween

Narrative theory in relation to Halloween

The term Classical Hollywood Narrative refers to Todorovs theory, suggesting that stories begin with an equilibrium, they then get disrupted creating a series of following events, this is then resolved into a new equilibrium at the end.  It’s useful looking at the classical Hollywood narrative to understand media texts as the clear structure helps the audience to follow the storyline, as it creates a sense of continuity, giving it a sense of realism. This is sometimes challenged however with the use of flashbacks, ect. Halloween doesn’t follow the classical Hollywood narrative as it starts with a disequilibrium, as it starts with a murder scene. This gives the audience an idea of a traumatic event which may have caused the series of mass killing. Also there is no resolution at the end of the film as the killer is thought to be dead, however he appears to be gone in the last scene meaning he’s still on the loose and hasn’t been captured or killed. This leaves the audience on a cliff hanger which allows there to be a sequel.

Propp identified 8 different character types, from looking at 100’s of folk tales. These 8 types are; the villain(s) (the ‘baddie’), the hero (the main protagonist and victor),the donor ( who provides an object with some magic property), the helper (who aids the hero), the princess (‘reward’ for the hero and object of the villain’s schemes), her father (who rewards the hero), the dispatcher (who sends the hero on their way), the false hero (the double agent who hinders the hero rather than helping them. It’s useful for the audience to be able to look at identify the character types to understand a media text as it allows the audience to identify who’s playing what roles, making them feel more involved with the characters. However sometimes characters can be deceiving with a plot twist, which adds an element of surprise creating more suspense for the audience. The character types included in Halloween are the villain being Michael Myers, the hero, Laurie, as she’s the one who kept trying to defeat the killer and the helper Loomis, who tries to capture Mike throughout the film and at the end of the movie he helps Loomis, the hero.

Binary opposition are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example is good vs evil, we understand the concept of good being the opposite of evil. This is a theory by Levi-strauss. Some examples of binary opposites in Halloween are, in fact good vs evil with the characters Mike Myers contrasting with Laurie, humans vs supernatural as we come to realise at the end that Mike Myers isn’t all that he seems to be, and there is in fact a super natural element in his character as he regains consciousness numerous times when in theory he should have died (if he was human), protagonist(s) vs antagonist with Laurie and Loomis being the potential protagonists, although in the end of the film we realise that they haven’t actually destroyed the killer, and Mike Myers being the antagonist with his mass murders, civilised and savage with Mike Myers being savage with his mass brutal killings, whereas the rest of the characters portray civilisation, and finally life vs death is a binary opposite found in the film Halloween as there are numerous deaths as Mike Myers is on an outrageous killing spree and there’s and the characters have to struggle to stay alive.

 There’s a quote from Bordwell and Thompson which defines narrative as ‘a chain of events in a cause and effect relationship occurring in time and space’, which means, for them, a narrative typically begins with one situation, a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally a new situation arises that brings the end of the narrative. Narrative shapes material in terms of space and time- it defines where things take place, when thy take place and how quickly they take place. Narrative, thus uses technical techniques to manipulate our awareness of time and place; e.g. flash backs, slow motions, speeding u ect. When watching a film we try to connect the events to make sense of what is happening, making it a very important aspect of looking at narrative, because even if there is no obvious connection, we still try and make one, to make sense of the film we are watching. The director can create a mood or atmosphere by choosing certain shots in a certain order, to build a picture in our minds. We automatically link what’s happening in one shot to what’s happens within those either side of it, as that’s what creates a clearer understanding of what’s happening in the film, it’s a natural observation.  This is important in understanding media texts as we need to make links between different aspects and events in the film to understand the movie as a whole. One event that happens in Halloween, for example, that leads to another event taking place is when Mike Myers kills his sister as a child, which leads to him to go back to the town it all happened and going on a mass killing spree. Another event would be Lynda calling Laurie for help as she’s getting killed, resulting in Laurie going over to the other house and nearly getting killed herself, which leads to Mike Myers to continue to try kill Laurie and following her back to the house she’s babysitting in. An example of an event that we know happens in the film but we do not see would be Mike Myers as a child getting arrested and going to a mental hospital as we know that he escapes, however we don’t see the trial or see him actually in there. Another example would be that we know he’s had years of counselling with a doctor as Loomis mentioned that he’s been his doctor for years, so we know people have tried to help him and stop his evil ways for years, however we don’t see any of that specifically in the film, we just know that from the preference from Loomis throughout the film.