Relate Halloween and The Crazies to the four theorists

 Halloween

The original “Halloween” can be related to all four of the main narrative theories, though some more so than others.

Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov’s theory would suggest that a story would start balanced, then an event would trigger a disruption, causing other events in a chain. The problems caused by those events would be solved to end the story in a balance. The problem with applying this theory to Halloween is that it is difficult to pinpoint one specific event to causing the chain. It could be early as Michael Myers being a child and his first murder, or it could be seen as the escape from the asylum. Even at the end of the film, where we are led to believe that Michael has finally met his end, he disappears, which means that no balance has been met. While they are temporarily safe, there is no final balance, no new equilibrium. This is the reason why Todorov’s theory is not very easily related to Halloween.

Propp

Vladimir Propp’s theory can be summarised into eight specific character roles; the villain, the hero, the donor, the helper, the princess, her father, the dispatcher and the false hero.  While this theory may be better applied to other genres, some horror movies can still be related to it. Halloween has some characters which could possibly fit these roles, but most roles would be left empty. The villain and the hero are of course obvious but the other roles are more difficult to fill. Dr. Loomis (who was responsible for Michael Myers at the Asylum) could easily fill the role of the helper, but it would be indirect as Laurie does not speak Dr. Loomis throughout the film (until their encounter at the end). From this the conclusion can be made that Propp’s theory is not useful when related to Halloween.

Claude Levi-Strausse

Strausse’s theory was based around binary opposition; it did not depend on order of events but more on what themes the story used. For example good would be understood as the opposite of evil. This theory relates to Halloween easier than the previous two, some of the binary opposites contained within Halloween could be identified as good/evil, natural/supernatural, weak/strong, past/present and day/night just to name a few. This theory is more flexibly than other theories and so it is easily relatable to Halloween, whereas the others struggle to relate.

Bordwell and Thompson

Less of a full theory and more of an idea, Bordwell and Thompson’s definition of narrative can easily be applied to Halloween and seemingly every other film too. Their description stated that a narrative was “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space”. As it is an idea and not a full theory it can be applied to essentially any film, including Halloween.   
 

The Crazies

Just as Halloween was possible to relate to each of the narrative theories in varying degrees, The Crazies finds some of the theories more easily applicable than others.

Todorov

Introduction:  Chaos is introduced at the very beginning to engage the audience. This makes the audience immediately want to know what has caused this event. This goes against Todorov’s theory because it states that a balance is present in the beginning, clearly this is not the case. After showing the burning town, it continues to superimpose the text “Two days earlier” meaning that the majority of the film has already happened and the story is being told.

Disruption to the balance: We aren’t shown on screen when the plane crash took place. We are just simply told that it happened. The crash itself turns out to be an accident, the plane was carrying a virus which had been developed by the government, and this plane was on its way to be destroyed because it posed too big a threat. The first known person to be infected with the virus was Rory Hamill who approaches the sheriff with a shotgun; to begin with, alcohol was to blame for Rory’s behaviour. The disease continues to spread and the chaos with it, the balance between normality and chaos shifts immensely.

Re-equilibrium: No full re-equilibrium exists with this film, as a containment protocol that destroyed Ogden Marsh commences on the town that the couple approach. This is conventional of horror films but also means that Todorov’s theory does not apply. Along with this, we also get a small clip within the credits which uses a real local reporter to read the story of Ogden Marsh’s “chemical plant fire”, which destroyed most of the town. 

Propp

The theory which involved eight specific character roles is very difficult to apply to The Crazies, mainly due to the lack of long-term characters. We see many people killed off early on, making it difficult to find those who fit into specific roles. The three key characters seen throughout the film are David, Judy and Russell (the deputy), David is clearly the hero of the three and is determined to survive and bring Judy with him. This also means that Judy could be labelled as the princess, she needs to be saved from the infection and the contamination process. This leaves Russell with the role of the helper, who doesn't in fact give them and item which leads to their survival but he does help them along their way and once they reach a road block, he gives his life in order for them to escape. While not all eight character roles are easily applicable to the film, those that do apply are incredibly important.

Claude Levi-Strausse

Binary opposition is very easily applied to The Crazies, the most obvious of the themes featured within the film is the normality/chaos. The beginning shows the burning town and destruction, but after this we are able to see the town in its normal form, where peace and order is in place. It is also worth noting the destruction comes in the night which is common for horror films. The second most important of the oppositions would be the uninfected/infected, this is because we encounter both throughout and as the film goes on it seems more common to see the infected people of the town with very few survivors. Overall Strausse's narrative theory applies to The Crazies even more than it does to Halloween as we see so many oppositions and transitions in the film. 

Bordwell and Thompson

The theory stated here is more relevant to The Crazies than Halloween, as we see the film technically in a past tense as it starts at the end. The opening clip shows the town burning and then later it reveals the cause of the destruction. The cause-effect relationship of the events is blatantly clear in The Crazies, one event triggers another and the whole film leads from the crashing of the government plane. Following this an outbreak occurs which kills off or infects the inhabitants and finally the government initiate a containment, which two people manage to escape.