Narrative theory in relation to Halloween

The Classical Hollywood Narrative is based around Tzvetan Todorov's theory, where the film starts off as an initial equilibrium, which is disturbed by a disequilibrium,ending with a new equilibrium or reestablished equilibrium. Tzevetan Todorov's ideas are based around the CHN. I think looking at The CHN is relatively useful for looking at media texts as some do follow these rules and it is quite a common convention. It helps for the audience to know what to expect and reassures them that this is the basic plot line it will follow. Although many story lines nowadays are challenging this and equilibriums vary in places or there aren't any at all. Halloween doesnt follow the classical narrative as the very beginning of the film starts off with a disequilibrium where Micheal kills his sister as a young boy. Although all seems well after this scene, the beginning is tragic and brutal.

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic who came up with eight different character types and 31 narrative functions. These character types are: the villain, the hero, the donor, the helper, the princess, her father, the dispatcher and the false hero. He decided on these by reading hundreds of folk tales to see if they shared any structures. In Halloween, the villain would've been Micheal Myers, and the hero: Laurie as she defeats the villain. Doctor Loomis is represented as the helper as he aids the hero by locking away Micheal Myers. The dispatcher and princess would be the children Laurie has to look after as she is responsible for them and they set Laurie put on the quest to defeat the villain. The sheriff could've been the false hero as his intentions were good but he didn't do much for his town or his people. A lot of the character types don't fit with any characters in the film and some only loosely. Other story lines are more fitted to Propp's theory but others don't. Almost all narratives include a hero and a villain.

Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. Claude Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. I think that looking at binary oppositions is useful for looking at media texts as it shows the audience the differing features and enhances them as they make each other stand out and become more prominent. Some examples of binary opposition in Halloween are: young-old (the innocence of the youngsters and the wiser older people), good-evil (purity of the "goodies" and sinfulness of the "baddies"), innocent-stupid (Laurie's innocence in comparison to her friends' attitudes and behaviors), safety-danger (the safe environments contrasting the dangerous unknown ones) and inside-outside (outside the familiar homes and inside the houses).

Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". By this, they mean a narrative 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. The events manipulate how we see the story line through time and space. We link the separate events together on our own and this creates the narrative. This is important when understanding media texts as the theory helps us to understand that our brains link the events together even if it is not directly said that they're connected. In Halloween, we assume the killing of Micheal Myers' sister caused the killing of Laurie's friends later on in the film. The situations happened separately and we link them together due to their similarities and the convenience. Another cause-effect element in the movie was the fact that Micheal Myers killed his sister and was then locked away in a mental institution for 15 years. These events happened but we are informed of them at different times. We link them together as though they're related because of the apparent connection between the two happenings. Events we hear about but do not see, are the period of time Micheal Myers was locked away for, and also the robbery of the Halloween masks from the local shop.