1. FilmNarrative
Our psychological horror film’s narrative starts with our protagonist, Marie being
physically and mentally abused by her parents at a young age. This abuse continues
on into her adolescence and it begins affecting her mental capacity as she begins to
have nightmares of herself being attacked or her attacking others. These nightmares
have caused her to lose sleep and this causes her to turn to drugs and alcohol as a
release from her torment and she soon becomes addicted to them. Her addiction
causes her to have horrific hallucinations such as her taking a regular bath and it
slowly filling with blood even though it is only in her mind.
Her boyfriend notices the change in Marie’s behaviour and attempts to help her
through her struggles; but she ends up killing him violently in an unprecedented rage
urged on by her excessive use of alcohol. This leads to her becoming more mentally
unstable which we see as she starts hearing terrifying voices in her head whispering
to her to inflict harm on others and Marie smashing her bedroom mirror because she
imagines that the reflection in the mirror is of her dead boyfriend watching her. At
the end of the film, her psychological torture becomes too overwhelming and she
commits suicide by hanging.
Todorov came up with a narrative structure which happens in all films. Firstly, the
equilibrium – this is when everything is normal, the characters are living a normal life
and the audience can relate to this. In our film, the equilibrium is her living her
normal life at first, before all these problems occur. Then, there is a disruption;
something happens to disturb this normality. In our film, the disruption is when
Marie starts having nightmares, and turns to drugs and alcohol. Next, there is a
reaction and repair; characters react to this situation and try to deal with it. In
Todorov’s narrative structure, the problem gets resolved – however, with our film,
because it’s a horror film, the problem does not get solved and Marie ends up killing
her boyfriend. Next, there is a new equilibrium, where the problem is dealt with and
there is a new normality. However, in our film, this does not happen as Marie
becomes worse and worse in her mental state.
In horror, Todorov’s theory only works to an extent; this is because the problem
can’t always be solved. This leads to a heightened scare for the audience, leaving
them feeling hopeless and paranoid this could happen to them.
