Narrative Analysis of The Return

Narrative is a word that refers to any constructed story, or simply the way a story is built. There are many theorists that suggest every narrative has a pattern.  There are many different narrative theories to suggest every story has a similar or the same sequence. Therefore, I and my group have created a trailer than fits in line with these narrative theories.

One of the narrative theorists includes Tzvetan Todorov, who published influential work on narrative from the 1960s onwards. His theory suggests there are five stages of a narrative. His argument is that stories begin with equilibrium where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is then disrupted by some events, setting in chain a series of events, to which the disruption is eventually solved.

His first stage, the ‘equilibrium’ suggests that at the beginning of every narrative there is a typical American family, a heterosexual couple, or a group of teenage friends, who are living their everyday normal day to day lives, in which the audience are given a chance to understand the relationship between the characters. Therefore, I and my group have codified our trailer to follow this pattern as we start our trailer with a group of teenage friends, living their normal day to day lives, in their living environment, in which they are unaware to the impending disruption about to destroy the normality of their lives. We also get to know our characters individually, and as a group, for example we get to know our main character and her personality, and her attitude and role within the friendship group. We also got to see this with the other characters.

The second stage to his theory involves the ‘disruption’.  This stage will usually involve a series of unexpected events that negatively affect the lives of the main characters. The disruption is usually performed by the monster (villain), who disrupts the normality of the characters’ lives and sets in motion a series of cause and effect events that leads to towards the resolution of the narrative. Therefore, we have followed the codes and conventions to this stage as throughout our trailer, we have included a variety of scenes showing the protagonist disrupting the normality of the characters’ lives, in particular our final girl. However, due to our trailer being in non-linear order, the disruption takes part in many different parts of the trailer. For example we will see a scene from our trailer where a curse has been broken, therefore releasing the spirit of our villain, who therefore is free to destroy the normality of our characters’ lives, such as killing them individually one by one, including a car crash, killing off two of our characters. However, not all deaths or disruptions will be shown, as we do not want to give away the main parts of the narrative.

The third stage to his theory is the ‘recognition’. At this stage, this is where a character, usually the final girl will fully recognise the disruption. However during our trailer, we will not show a lot of the recognition, due to the fact we don’t want to give away too much of the narrative, and we will focus more on the equilibrium, disruption and the repair, as these are the main elements to the narrative, that will draw in the attention of our target audience, to watch our film. Although,  a small element that we have included is when the main girl and her sister ‘recognise’ that their adopted sister has returned, and has killed two of their friends, in which the pair find their two friends dead in a car, which at this stage, the protagonist realises she will have to defeat the villain alone, without any help.

The fourth stage to his theory includes the ‘repair’. This involves the protagonist attempting to solve the issue of the disruption, which includes several attempts. In our own trailer, we get to see the protagonist attempting to defeat the villain by pushing her, which leads to the audience thinking the villain has fallen into the lake. However this isn’t the case, as the villain appears again and captures the final girl, which is what ends the trailer. Also, due to our trailer being in non-linear order, we get to see a lot of drama and action throughout the trailer of the final girl along with the group of friends trying to defeat the villain, however fail to do so. For example when villain Ruby appears in the back of our two characters car, the pair try to  defeat the villain but end up crashing, leaving them to be brutally murdered by our villain.

The fifth stage to his theory is the ‘new equilibrium’. This stage involves a new equilibrium being achieved that is similar to the opening, however slightly different in that nothing  can be the same again due to loved ones being killed, and others have been affected by the process. In horror, the manner in which the order can be false is when the monster may not really be dead, and rise again from the sequel. We can see this appear in our trailer due to the fact the characters are convinced that the protagonist has defeated the monster and pushed her into a lake, to then realise she hasn’t been defeated, as she comes up behind our final girl, and blows out her candle, in which then our trailer ends, leaving the characters in suspense. However not much of the new equilibrium stage is usually shown, due to much information being given to viewers, ruining the film for them. We can also see this example in the film Halloween, where protagonist Laurie assumes she has defeated her brother Michael Myers who is in fact the monster, which in fact the audience are let in on the fact he hasn’t been defeated and has escaped from the scene, which is something Laurie is unaware of. This then would appeal to the audience, wanting them to watch the next part of the film.

Furthermore, another theorist that has a theory based on narratives is Vladmir Propp. He recognised a series of recurring functions/narrative strands. He suggested all narratives share similar character types (a villain, a hero, a helper etc.) and a story element. He suggested every narrative had 8 similar characters and functions. However, it is important to notice that not every function or character type will be exactly present in every narrative.

For example, his first step suggests that the hero leaves home. Although, as our trailer genre is horror, this is slightly challenged, as instead, it is suggested that the parents have left home, and the group of teens are left alone. This is portrayed within our own trailer, as the final girl’s parents have gone away for the weekend, leaving her alone at home. His next point suggests the villain injuring or harming a member of the hero’s family. However in this case, the hero’s family is counted as the hero’s group of teen friends, who are killed by the villain. The task to complete for the hero is essentially to survive, which is what our protagonist attempts to do throughout our trailer. He also suggests that the hero is given a magical gift, which in relation to horror films, may well be a weapon or a piece of information that helps the protagonist defeat the villain. Which on our trailer, our protagonist is led to the forest as she discovers an item of the villain, which leads her to find the villain. His next point in which he suggests the villain makes an attempt at spying, which we show in our trailer at the scene of the protagonist and her twin’s birthday, the group of friends aren’t aware that they are being watched by villain Ruby. The next stage is the hero is attacked, which is portrayed throughout our trailer of the villain Ruby attempting to kill her adopted sister Frankie and her group of friends. The next stage is the hero gains a helper/ a group of helpers, which is essentially the group of teens throughout our trailer. Towards the ending of our trailer, we get to see the next stage of the hero and villain joining in direct combat, which is where our villain Ruby and sister/protagonist come face to face, in which a battle takes place.

As we can see from Propps theory, majority of his points fit in relation to our trailer and is therefore very conventional. There is also the fact of majority of Propp’s 8 characters are in relation to our trailer, as we have a hero, a villain, a benefactor and a helper who is both the friendly older person in our trailer who is the teacher giving a student advice, and therefore our trailer is in relation to Propps theory.

A further theorist who based his theory around narrative is Claude Levi-Strauss, who looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary opposites are a set of opposite values, and an example would be good and evil. The two main binary opposites seen within our trailer is the villain and the final girl. The villain is portrayed in a negative, evil and strange character, whereas the final girl is presented in a good, normal and known character, which shows both characters are seen as complete opposites. We can also see binary opposites between the final girl and her twin sister. We are able to view the final girl Frankie as a virgin, quiet, sweet innocent character, whereas her sister Amy is quite the opposite in ways such as she enjoys drinking and partying, has many boyfriends and isn’t seen as a virgin, and quite likes to have a laugh. Therefore our trailer fits in line with Claude Levis-Strauss’s theory.

Another theorist who analysed narrative is Pam Cook, who is a film critic. She came up with four defining features of what defines as the classical Hollywood narrative. She suggests that we are so used to seeing films structured in this way that it is difficult for us to imagine an alternative.

She firstly suggests that ‘a linear narrative of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution’ which means the narrative will follow a straight line where a character actions causes an effect which leads to more causes effects until a puzzle is resolved. This is slightly challenged within our trailer due to the trailer being in non-linear order. However we do have elements that include causes and effects throughout the trailer, which the resolution is usually hidden as we don’t want to give away the story. For example our trailer shows the characters causing an effect by repeating a curse that brings the villain to life, which then negatively affects the characters and their actions throughout the trailer, which leads to majority of them being brutally murdered.

She then suggests a ‘fictional world spatial and temporal verisimilitude’ which is referring to the world we see on the screen is fictional, and will be recognisable as one that follows similar natural laws to ours. During our trailer, we will definitely see fictional world spatial, which is referring to the space, however, we do not see temporal verisimilitude, as our trailer is in a non-linear format. We will also see a lot of verisimilitude due to the target audience accepting the reality of the diegisis, as viewers will find it acceptable for example in our trailer for there to be a such thing  as a cure that can bring the dead back to life, which is essentially what happens in our trailer.

She the points out ‘A centrality to the narrative agency of psychologically rounded characters’, which refers to the characters we engage with on the screen will be recognisably human even if they are not. We slightly able to see an element to this as our villain who is essentially a spirit, and therefore we are still recognising that spirit to be an alive human, even though she is well and truly dead. She lastly points out a ‘high degree of narrative closure’ which refers to all narrative strands will be neatly tidied up leaving the audience satisfied. This is something we will not be able to see during our trailer. This is due to the fact this will be giving the whole story away, which will then not be satisfying for any consumers who decide to watch the film, as they will already know the story line. 

Lastly, Roland Barthes came up with a theory that suggests narratives follow 5 different codes. His first code ‘Action Code’ refers to events which take place in the narrative (who, when and where of the story). He suggests every a narrative start with life is good, which is portrayed in our trailer showing the characters living their normal day to day lives. He then states that a crisis occurs, which in our trailer we show this when the curse is broken, and the villains spirit is released, which is followed by a series of crises, such as the villain disrupting the normality of the characters’ lives, by starting to kill of each teen. This is then when we think it is over when the two friends head to the police station to get some help. This is then however disrupted as another crisis occurs as the two friends are suddenly found dead. However towards the end of this code is slightly challenged due us not wanting to give away the complete end of the story, so we therefore leave the audience in suspense as to what is going to happen. We can also recognise this code in relation to Pam Cooks ‘Linear narrative of cause and effect’ or Propp suggesting many film narratives seem to share the same action code.

His second code refers to the semantic code. This refers to character and characterisation. The actions in a story are explained by the characters viewpoint on events. For example during our trailer, majority is seen from our protagonist’s perspective, which builds up more tension for the audience to see. This therefore makes the audience feel a part of the diegisis which could be quite exciting for them. However, if the audience were to see the trailer from the monsters perspective, this could make the audience feel slightly uncomfortable, as this can make them feel a part of the killing, and this puts them in a position of them less likely to help the hero, we have therefore avoided this.

His third code refers to the enigma code. This involves the setting up of a mystery, its development and its resolution. For example during our trailer the setting up of a mystery involves how did the adopted sister Ruby die? Why does she want to kill her sister Frankie? How is Frankie going to escape her sister Ruby after breaking the curse? This then all leads to a development as throughout the trailer the audience slowly begin to understand the meaning behind these mysteries such as during a game of spin the bottle the audience understand why Ruby (the villain) is after Frankie (final girl), and how she died, which Frankie states she ran away at a young age due to her not feeling loved by Frankie, to which she was later found, dead. This then leads to an understanding why Ruby is seeking revenge. The resolution is hardly shown within the trailer as this is something that is giving away too much of the story, ruining it for the audience.

His fourth code refers to the referential code. This involves the explaining or informing. For example mise en scene is a referential code. For example during our trailer we have our character that plays the villain before she is portrayed as a villain wearing a pure white dress. This reinforces the idea she is innocent, and is harmless. However, once she is portrayed as the villain who is shown through the symbolic code, we see her white dress being torn up with blood splattered all over. This then represents the idea she is now a damaged character who was once innocent which can be conveyed from her white dress which as be seen as her personality on the ‘inside’, which she now has blood on the ‘outside’ which reinforces the way she is now.

His last code is the symbolic code. This involves the reading of the connotations of signs which transforms hem into symbolic representations. For example, throughout our trailer we recognise that our final girl is a typical representation of bravery, as she is able to face her fears and attempt to defeat the villain towards the end of our trailer. We also see that our final girl is usually seen as the odd one out compared to her friends, and doesn’t want to join in on the fun, which may symbolise she, imagines she doesn’t deserve to have fun, and may be guilty of something that has happened in the past.

In conclusion this has therefore shown that the trailer myself and my group have created is very formulaic and relates to majority of the points in these five theorists, suggesting we have followed the codes and conventions suggested for a narrative.