Narrative theory in relation to The Crazies (Eisner, 2010) and Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)

1. NARRATIVE THEORY IN RELATION TO THE CRAZIES (EISNER,
2010)AND HALLOWEEN (CARPENTER, 1978)
The classic Hollywood
narrative is the idea that
most films follow a set
pattern, including either
three or five steps. The
pattern is as follows:
equilibrium,
disequilibrium, and new
equilibrium. Alternatively, with
the extra steps;
equilibrium,
disequilibrium,
recognition, attempt to fix,
and the re-established
equilibrium. The theorist that
recognised this pattern was named Tzvetan Todorov. Understanding and applying the
classic Hollywood narrative theory to film is important, because it gives an idea of the
general construct of films, and how directors and filmmakers can play around and swap
parts around, or completely remove them in order to create a reaction from the audience
compared to what they could have been expecting from the movie. Neither of the films, out
of The Crazies or Halloween seem to follow a strict classic realist narrative, as both films are
still left on a disequilibrium. In The Crazies, there’s an appearance of an equilibrium for the
two characters, however the audience knows this is fake, from the broadcast and the aerial-
shot graphics given right at the end. As well
as this, there is a snippet of the
disequilibrium at the very beginning of the
film, giving the audience a peek of what’s to
come, giving the beginning equilibrium a
sour taste. In Halloween, though several
times it appears that Mike Myers has been
killed, as the very end his body disappears
from the lawn which he fell out of the
window onto, and the last few shots, we
hear his breathing over, indicating he is still
alive, and possibly coming back for
revenge.
The next theorist we studied was Vladimir Propp, who recognised the character type theory.
In many fairy tales, the characters are repeated, with the characters we follow being the
hero, the princess being the one the hero saves, and the villain; the main three. There are
others with less common appearances, such as the princess’s father, the dispatcher (the
one who sends the hero on the quest), the helper, the donor (the one who offers the hero
something to aid their quest), and the false hero. Assigning these character types to

2. characters within films gives the audience a clue to what sort of significance they will play to
the plot, and what they may do to aid and progress the adventure. Within the Crazies, the
most obvious character types we see are David, as the hero, Judy, as the hero, the princess,
and also the helper, and Russell, as the dispatcher, helper and also the false hero. However,
there’s also the
government as the
villain within the
movie, being the
ones who caused the
outbreak in the first
place. Within
Halloween, we have
Laurie as the hero,
and Mike Myers as
the villain. Other
characters seem hard
to label, as they don’t
contribute much
except to be villains to Myers. Doctor Loomis could be argued as a helper/dispatcher, but he
doesn’t seem to offer much help or guidance at all
during the last few scenes.
Binary opposition is the concept of opposite ideas
within a media text, for example, we understand good
and evil to be complete opposites. The theorist who
looked into this was Claude Levi-Strauss. Applying
this theory to media texts is helpful to get to the very
basic themes of the
narrative, the centre of
the driving point to the
story. Though the binary
opposition may not be
apparent all the time,
there is more often than
not, if not within every
story, at least one form of
binary opposition. Within
Halloween, a few of the binary oppositions are, the most obvious - good and evil, between
the towns people and Mike Myers, but also, natural and unnatural, Myers being very strange
and almost supernatural, danger and safety, the contrast between where they should be
safe, in their homes and neighbourhood and the fact that the killer is loose there, known and
unknown, and finally, innocent and obscene, between Laurie and the other teens around
her.

3. Bordwell and Thompson were the last theorists researched, that defined narrative as being
‘a chain of events
within a cause and
effect relationship,
within time and
space’, meaning
that most events
within a narrative
will have an effect,
which will lead to
another event later
on in the narrative,
and so on. Without
this cause-effect relationship, most stories would not get very far, so this constant cycle
tends to be the most evident driving point of film. One event, though it was before the actual
screen duration began, that caused later events within the movie was Judy getting pregnant.
Due to this fact, it was the reason why she went into the room in their house where the
‘crazies’ were waiting to ambush her. Another event similar was the actual plane crashing,
which drove the whole story due to that being the source of the infection, with the biological
weapon being leaked into the water supply of the town. One event which we know
happened, but we didn’t actually see on screen also, was the people in the trucks being
killed, which Judy later finds, coming to the
realisation that even the healthy people ended
up being killed, and that David very well could
have been in there had it not been for him going
back to save her. The last event, was Deputy
Russell’s escape. We see him being taken, as it
is discovered that he is exhibiting signs of
infection, which we find out later to be true, but
we never see how he escapes, only that he
somehow manages to group back up with David
later on.