Narrative Theories and Halloween

Tzvetan Todorov

The film Halloween does follow the narrative structure of Todorov’s ‘Equilibrium’ theory, as it follows the structure of ‘Equilibrium, Disequilibrium and then New Equilibrium’. At the very beginning of the movie we see Michael Myers murder his sister, which does automatically cause disequilibrium, but this is only used to explain the story to the audience so that as the movie unfolds they will understand. In the film, a few scenes later, we see that time has changed to ’15 years later’. We could suggest that this is where the movie really begins. At this point we see the normal life of a teenager named Laurie, an innocent, smart girl, and her friends. They have normal lives, Laurie babysits an 8 year old boy, and her friends being more rebellious sleep with their boyfriends and smoke joints. This is all part of the Equilibrium. As the plot continues and the character of Michael Myers in introduced to the girls, things become more complicated as he begins to murder them. This is the Disequilibrium. At the end of the movie we see Michael Myers get shot by Doctor Loomis. Whereas this would normally become the New Equilibrium, as it is the end of the disequilibrium, in one shot we see Myers laying there dead, and in another his body is no longer there. This New Equilibrium acts as a circle and the theory begins all over again, leaving room for the next movie to begin. This theory inspired the “Classical Hollywood Narrative” of simply a beginning, middle and end. However in Todorov’s theory, we could argue that there are actually five stages. Firstly the state of equilibrium, where everything is as it should be, secondly a disruption of this order, which in Halloweens case would be Myers escaping the sanitarium, thirdly recognition of this disruption, e.g. the girls being stalked by Myers as they walk home. Fourthly, an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption, this can be where Laurie herself is desperately fighting for her life. And lastly, the restoration of the New Equilibrium, which is where life continues after we believe Myers, is dead.

Vladimir Propp

Propp’s theory follows the Morphology of the folk tale, where he discovered that each one followed the same structure of have 8 character roles.  It is difficult to link this to the movie Halloween, as there is only a limited set of characters, so it is possible in this case it doesn’t work:

·         The Villain- Obviously in ‘Halloween’, this would be Michael Myers, as he is a psychopathic murderer. At the beginning of the film, we see him as a child murdering his own sister, and then throughout the film he murders many other innocent victims.

·         The Hero- I would suggest that the hero is, although there isn’t an actual ‘hero’ type character. Dr. Loomis as it is he throughout the film that chases Myers across the country after he leaves the sanitarium and follows the clues in order to catch him in time. It is also him in the end that shoots Myers.

·         The Donor- Would normally provide an object with magic property.

·         The Helper who aids the hero-

·         The Princess- We could suggest that Laurie is the princess as she is the damsel in distress and appears to be a main victim of Myers as he stalks her throughout the day. At the end when she tries to be her own hero and fight him, she isn’t actually successful and ends up relying on Dr. Loomis to shoot him in order to be saved.

·         The Father- This character would normally reward the hero.

·         The false hero.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Levi-Strauss looked at narrative theory in terms of Binary oppositions, for example, sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. We can use this theory quite well when it comes to Halloween:

·         Good/ Evil- Myers is obviously an evil character, which contrasts with the goodness of the other characters.

·         Past/ Present- In the past Myers as a child murdered his sister, and in the present as an adult where we see he has physically grown up, he is still a murderer.

·         Sanity/ Insanity- Laurie fits the role of a typically Sane character, whereas Myers is obviously Insane.

·         Virgin/ Sexually active-  Laurie is a virgin and innocent

·         Innocent/ Corrupted- This can be expressed in several ways: firstly, how Tommy, being a child is innocent, whereas when we see Myers as a child, he is obviously corrupted as it leads him to murder his sister. Secondly, we see Laurie is innocent and her friend Annie is corrupted sexually.

·         Known/ Unknown

·         Natural/ Supernatural

·         Human/ Monster

These binary oppositions almost comment on the Zeitgeist. Halloween was created at a time where Reagan was President of the United States and had caused uproar in the country. Because of this people were ironically finding safety in the horror films because of the threat of nuclear war at the time. The mask Myers actually wears is supposed to be the face of Ronald Reagan, though it is not that obvious.

Bordwell/ Thompson

The fact that Myers murders his sister causes a chain of events that leads to him being locked in an Asylum for fifteen years, these events we do not actually see, but we know about simply because of what Dr. Loomis tells us.

We can see examples of parallel editing where Laurie is sat in the house watching a horror movie with the children she is babysitting, whereas at the same time down the street her friends are being murdered.

Summary: Out of all four theories, the theory I find is most successful with the movie ‘Halloween’ is Levi-Strauss’ binary opposition theory.