Narrative Theory in Relation to Horror ~ Halloween & The Crazies

Nearly all films will follow one of the four main theories, these theories are those presented by Todorov, Propp, Bordwell and Thompson and Levi-Strauss.
Todorov's theory is mostly present in superhero type movies and less in the horror genre. Todorov brought forward the idea that films start with and equilibrium that gets disturbed by and event and finally a new equilibrium is found. This doesn't apply in the horror genre and so doesn't fit with the film Halloween.For example in Halloween it starts off with a disequilibrium as we see Michael Myers stabbing his sister Julie, another example that this doesn't follow Todorov's theory is at the ending when Michael appears to have been killed but he has disappeared. This doesn't end the film in a new equilibrium and makes way for the sequels. This is also the case in the horror movie The Crazies, Todorov's theory also doesn't fit in with this as at the very start of the movie we aren't shown an equilibrium, we start by seeing the disruption and then taken back two days to a quick scene of equilibrium before the disruption occurred. Also at the end of the film there is not a new equilibrium that has been solved and we see the problem escalate even further.
Propp's theory of the eight character types fits in vaguely with
Halloween, with Laurie being the hero and The Crazies, these 8 character types are even less visible than can be seen in Halloween. The obvious hero is the sheriff who does his best to protect as many people as he can. The deputy Russel could be seen as the false hero as he becomes an inconvenience when they are trying to get information out of the man as he shoots him before they are able too, but he could also double as the helper he sacrifices himself so that he can save the lives of the sheriff and his wife, he also states that he has previously saved their lives three times. The villain in this case is the virus as it is the source of the death and disruption. The group of 'hunters' that we see driving around killing all of the people that they see can also be seen as villains as they are murdering the people that are sick as well as those who aren't. Towards the end of the film we also learn that the army people that began with looked like they were helping were also in a way become the villains themselves as seen in the scene where Judy is sitting on the floor with a handful of bullet casings that they were also killing the non-sick people also.
Michael Myers being the villain. The other characters such as the asylum doctor portrays the donor and the helper role, as without him Laurie would have most likely died at the end. Laurie's friends don't fit into a certain role but it could be said that they can potentially be seen as the helpers as they in a way make Laurie aware that there is something going on all though they were overall no help and their stupidity/unawareness made them easy targets. For

In many horror movies binary opposites are seen as there is always a good vs evil battle, this theory was presented by Levi-Strauss. In Halloween binary opposites are obvious as it is clear to us who the good and who the evil is. Laurie is seen as the good, as she keeps the children safe and protects them from getting hurt. She is seen trying to defeat the evil, who in this film is Michael Myers and also at the same time save herself. The asylum doctor is also seen as good, as he is aware of what Michael is capable of and tries to stop him. At the end of the movie he is helping save Laurie's life and also defeat the evil. Binary opposites can be seen in The Crazies for various reasons. We are shown an example of this at the very beginning with the first and second scenes. The first scene shows the town on fire and then goes to the scene of a baseball game. This opposition is the idea of an idyllic town against the chaotic disruption that will later follow, this emphasises even further the level of the event as it shows the polar opposite. Again like in Halloween we also see the good vs evil battle, but this time it can been seen on more than one occasion. We see it occur between the sheriff and a virus, the sheriff and the 'hunters' and it could also loosely be applied to the sheriff and Russell.

Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as 'A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space'. At the start of Halloween there is the scene of Michael murdering his sister Julie, we are shown this before we skip ahead to many years later. We weren't shown what happened in that period of time but we learn enough to understand what has happened. This presents Bordwell and Thompson's theory within this movie. In relation to The Crazies Bordwell and Thompson's theory is present throughout the movie and the events that are apart of this are vital to the plot of the film. In this movie we don't see the beginning of Judy's pregnancy as she is already pregnant at the start of the film, but we are aware that it has happened previously. This plays a crucial part of there fate and becomes the reason why they are still alive. Due to her being pregnant she had a fever, which made the army think she was infected and resulting in David rushing back to save her. If this hadn't have happened David would have been killed in the end, as we saw from all of the dead bodies in the truck. As well as the pregnancy happening before, there was also the creation of the virus and the crash of the plane that was transporting it. These events are what makes the characters take the path that they did and make the decisions that they chose. Although these scenes aren't actually featured in the filming we know that these are the main points and depicting events that were the making of the film that we saw.