Halloween and The Crazies

  John Carpenter’s 1978 film Halloween and Breck Eisner’s 2010 remake of The Crazies contains many uses of the 4 theories of narrative structure.

Tzventan Todorov

  Todorov’s theories on narrative structure suggest that all narratives have 3 stages or “equilibriums.” There is a state of initial “status quo” equilibrium where life for the characters are normal/ the forces of good and evil are balanced. This is then disrupted by some sort of event, usually the case of evil overbalancing the forces of good. This disequilibrium causes the heroes of the narrative to go and try and restore the status quo, and at the end of the narrative there is a new equilibrium. This new equilibrium provides some sort of closure to the story, and can either be good or bad, depending on the genre of narrative and how the narrative plays out throughout the entire text.

  In Halloween the narrative still follows this path. We have the initial equilibrium, where Laurie and her friends live happily in their suburban life, then the event of Michael Myers escaping from the lunatic asylum through Dr. Loomis’s car causes disequilibrium, after which he then stalks and murders Laurie’s friends and attempts to murder her. The new equilibrium then provides a form of closure, showing us that Dr Loomis saves Laurie from Myers by shooting him off the balcony, only for Myers to escape again. This type of conclusion adds to the theme of mystery, tension and fear throughout the film, as Myer’s survival tells the audience that they’re still not safe and Myers could still be hiding anywhere, waiting to strike.

  In The Crazies the initial status quo equilibrium shows that the town and its inhabitants. They live regular lives in this small place where everybody knows everybody. Then the status quo is disrupted and a new equilibrium emerges when the David interrupts the Baseball game by shooting a local resident, Rory, when he arrives bearing a shotgun, as well as when a local farmer burns down his own house with his wife and child still inside. Something is definitely not right with the people of the town, and when the military show up, David, his Wife Judy and Deputy Russell Clank, discover that the military accidently unleashed a bio-weapon on the town. The new equilibrium shows us that David and Judy escape, only for the military to hunt them down and quarantine the city they are headed to. Much like Halloween, this leaves the ending open so viewers can wonder what happens next, and adds a sense of dread as you know that the military will attempt to exterminate the protagonists and the rest of the city.

Vladimir Propp

  Propp’s theories on narrative structure suggest that in every story there are 8 main roles filled by certain characters encountered throughout the story. By comparing fairy tale stories, he has discovered that the 8 main roles of characters in films are:

·        * The Hero.

·        * The Villain.

·        * The Donor (the character who provides the hero with a magical or powerful object).

·        * The Helper (the character who aids the hero).

·        * The Princess (the reward for the hero, the sought after person and object of the villains schemes).

·        * Her Father (the man to give the reward).

·        * The Dispatcher (the character who sends the hero on the quest).

·        * The false hero.

  In Halloween, we can label many of the on screen characters with Propp’s roles. The first two obvious roles are the roles of Laurie (the hero) and Myers (the villain). In Halloween Laurie is the hero as she gets the most screen time and she has the most important role; namely discovering who murdered her friends and to protect the two children Tommy and Lindsey from Myers. Myers is the villain as he is the one who causes the disequilibrium by escaping the asylum and hunting down Laurie and her friends. He also stalks and murders Annie, Bob and Lynda, and attempts to thwart the hero by murdering her. The helper in the film is Dr Loomis, the psychiatrist of Myers, who attempts to track down Myers and aids both the Police and Laurie in finding and stopping him. The false hero can be seen as being the Sheriff, Annie’s father, as although he wants to help find Myers he also dismisses Loomis and eagerly tries to force himself into believing Myers isn’t as much as a threat Loomis makes him out to be. If he had listened to Loomis then many of the murders throughout the film could have been avoided.

  However other roles such as the donor, father and dispatcher are seemingly lacking in the film. The 3 other teens, Annie, Lynda and Bob can be referred to as they are the objects of the villains schemes (being to murder teens), as well as being sought after by Laurie after Lynda’s disturbing phone call as she was being strangled by Myers. Yet the other roles are unfulfilled, which maybe because of the nature of the slasher/ horror genre of because there was no need of those roles in this particular narrative text.

  In The Crazies, the main role of Hero is given to David, as he is the character with the most screen time and the character who’s given role of protecting his wife and escaping the town. In the film there is no obvious villain, only the townsfolk infected by the virus and the military, with no single figure that stands out as a leader or villain. There is no obvious Donor either, however the driver of the government SUV who Russell interrogates and kills could possibly be one, as it was through him that the protagonists discover about the virus and how the military accidently unleashed it. The Helper is Russell, David’s deputy and best friend. Russell is noticeably infected with the virus half way through the film, and when he himself realises this he offers to sacrifice himself so that David and Judy have a chance of surviving. Judy, David’s wife, can be labelled as the Princess, as she’s the character that David strives to save. He escapes the military camp especially to find her, and he is always the first to try and save her when she’s in danger. She is also pregnant, which makes her extremely vulnerable and (seemingly) the target of many of the infected civilians. The Father and the dispatcher roles do not seem to be present in any of the characters, as Judy (the princess) is independent from all of the characters aside from David, who is the hero, making Judy his princess or “reward,” and the group of survivors are not given their quest by a dispatcher, as they figure out their plan of action by themselves. The False Hero can be seen as being Mayor Hobbs, as he refuses to help David by not shutting off the water supply for the town and crops, as the virus is spread through the water. If it wasn’t for him a lot less people wouldn’t have been infected.

Claude Levi-Strauss

  Levi-Strauss’ theory on narrative structure suggests that narrative texts contain many binary opposites. An example of this would be good and evil, as both are the direct opposite of each other. These binary oppositions help us to understand deeper themes of the media text.

  In Halloween, we can put use Levi-Strauss’ theory to help understand the deeper arrangements and meaning of themes in the film. Firstly, one of the first binary opposites present in the media text is Sanity and Insanity. Sanity, held by Dr Loomis and Laurie, shows strength and determination during the periods of fear when Myers attacks them, while insanity, held by Myers, shows how cold he is and how he has no regard for life, killing when and where he likes with no emotion. This can also be linked with Courage and fear, Laurie and her friends being fearful of Myers while Loomis acts with courage against him. An obvious binary opposite is good and evil, Laurie representing good as she babysits the kids, while Myers is evil, as he murders the teens. Laurie could also be represented as good by the fact that she is a virgin, being that the other teens had all had sex (either on-screen or having it referred to off screen) and had ended up being killed by Myers. As Laurie is a very virginal character who doesn’t drink, smoke, have sex or gets into mischief with her friends she ends up being the hero who helps defeat Myers (this character profile or role is known as the “Final Girl” in horror/ slasher movies). More themes include safety and danger, safety referring to the suburban neighbourhood and danger referring to Myer’s old house. The American suburban town is very often seen as a safe, secure area to bring up children and to settle down, and isn’t often seen as a dangerous area, while Myer’s house is dangerous as it’s dilapidated and weatherworn as it’s old and abandoned. This binary opposite also heavily linked to Day and Night, or Light and Dark. During the day or when the lights are on in the house, the characters are safe from Myers as he only seems to observe them at most, while during the night or when the house is dark, Myers attempts to make his moves to kill the teens and succeeds in murdering 3 teens during the cover of darkness.

  In The Crazies, there are many themes that can also be seen in Halloween, such as insanity and sanity, courage and fear, good and evil and safety and danger. Insanity is held by the infected, as they kill for no good reason and without an emotional response to what they’ve done due to the virus, while the survivors are sane and try to act rationally to their situation and attempt to escape the town without becoming infected themselves. With fear and courage, the girl Becca can be used to represent fear, as well as many other of the unnamed civilians seen throughout the town, as she is extremely frightful for her life and needs David and Judy to help her through the difficult times surviving the military and the infected, while courage is held by Judy, David and Russell as they have to stay strong to survive. Courage can be seen particularly in Russell, as he knows he is infected and offers to sacrifice himself so David and Judy have a chance of escaping. With the two binary opposites good and evil, we can see that the survivors represent good, the few who aren’t infected fighting against the impossible forces of the infected and the military combined, while the infected and military are represented as evil; the infected as they are insane and extremely hostile, the military for attempting to exterminate the townsfolk. Another thing in the crazies that could represent good is the town itself. The town is the model of a small, American farming community where everyone is friends with everyone and people feel safe. When the military bring their bio-weapon virus down upon them, the townsfolk are no longer represented as “good” as they have been infected. This relates to safety and danger, as the whole town can be seen as a safe haven; small, tight-knit and friendly. However, the military camps or deserted farm land can be seen as dangerous, the camps are they are heavily controlled by the military to help exterminate the townsfolk and infected, making them dangerous, as well as the open farm land as there is no shelter from the military helicopters or infected. As well as all that has been mentioned in Halloween, there are other themes that can be seen in The Crazies. Love and hate, which related closely to sanity and insanity, is present throughout the whole film. Love can be seen between David and Judy, they both love each other to the point that they would die for one another, and the presence of Judy’s unborn child helps strengthen this love. Love (or friendship) can also be seen between David and Russell, as they are extremely close friends and companions. However, hate can also be seen between David and Russell once Russell gets infected. He becomes extremely aggravated by what the survivors do, and what threatens to kill David and Judy at one point. Although this hatred is forced onto Russell due to the virus, it’s very obviously there throughout the middle sections of the film. Hate can also be seen throughout the infected town folk, where the unnamed farmer burnt his house down with his wife and child, and where the coroner attacked David with the saw.

Bordwell and Thompson

  Bordwell and Thompson’s theory on narrative structure defines a narrative as “a chain of events in a cause-and-effect relationship, occurring in time and space.”  While we view the important scenes of the narrative onscreen during the movie, there are many events that are directly linked to the story but happened off screen.

  In Halloween, there is an example of this when Dr Loomis describes to the sheriff about how he studied Myers, saying “I watched him for fifteen years, sitting in a room, staring at a wall, not seeing the wall, looking past the wall, looking at this night, inhumanly patient, waiting for some secret, silent alarm to trigger him off.” Loomis talks about something story important which isn’t shown during the film. This is because it’s an extremely long event that takes 15 years to tell, and it would take too long to show in film. Another example is when Loomis is tracking Myers and he tracks him to a gas station, and you see the corpse of the truck driver. The murder was not seen, but due to the editing and linking Loomis tracking Myer, we assume that Myers killed the trucker. This is important for Halloween as it allows us to see the main points of the film (mainly Myers killing teenagers) while also being informed of other critical plot points in quick explanations. It also allows us to use our minds to link up evidence and keeps the viewer guessing and looking out for clues.

  In The Crazies, there is an example of this in the very first scene, where you see the town of Ogden Marsh on fire. There are no civilians in sight, and cars are lit on fire whilst the town’s banner falls to the floor in a burning fireball. In then cuts to black and on screen text comes up saying “Two Days Earlier.” This is used to show us that in the near future something terrible will happen to the small town, which is used to help pull in the viewers and get them engrossed in the film. Another example of this theory is when David and Russell are investigating the dead pilot out in the marsh and start looking for the plane. Russell says “last week Travis Clune was goin’ around sayin’ he heard somethin’ crash out by hopnin’ bog.” We do not see the crash, but using our imagination we can gather that the death of the pilot and the sound of something crashing are link and make a mental connection that the dead pilot was piloting whatever it was that crashed.

Conclusion

  The most important theorist on narrative structures would most likely be Levi-Strauss, as his theory allows us to delve deeper into the themes of Halloween and The Crazies, helping the director create meaningful sets and characters which fit in with the slasher genre. Levi-Strauss and Binary Opposites allowed us to see two opposing themes in narratives, which can be used to cause conflict and drama in the plot.