The Crazies Analysis

The Crazies was made in 2010 and is an American horror film set in the fictional town of Ogden Marsh, Pierce County. It was directed by Breck Eisner and is a remake of the 1973 film of the same name by George A. Romero, who was also the executive producer of the remake. The plot of the films follows David Dutten, his wife Judy and fellow people other their town when their water supply is accidentally infected with the ‘Trixie’ virus after a plane crashes into a lake where the town gets their water supply.  

The first scene of the burning town

The Crazies doesn’t follow Todorov’s Classical Hollywood Narrative Structure. First thing we see is a burning town and we don’t see any people. This draws the audience in and gets the hooked as they will want to know what happened. This is an unusual setting and not the normal equilibrium. The audience sees what is going to happen in the future. We then go to ‘2 days before’ in which we now have the equilibrium of the people of town playing a baseball game. The disruption is when Rory comes onto the baseball pitch with a gun the sheriff (David Dutten) assumes he is drunk as Rory is a recovered alcoholic and the sheriff shoots him and kills him. At the time they do not know that Rory has the virus which is the overall disruption. The recognition is when David, Judy and the deputy, Russell discovers what has happened. There is an attempt to resolve the disruption when David asks the mayor to turn off the water supply. However overall I don’t think that The Crazies follows the Classical Hollywood Narrative, this is because of the scene at the beginning. In addition at the end there isn’t a new equilibrium. We find out that the virus has spread to another town which David and Judy are now going to. They are about to go through the whole thing again which affects the audience as they feel sorry for the characters. There are also 3 important time durations during this film, the screen time is 92 minutes, the plot duration which is 3 days and story duration; this could be years as it is hard to tell how long the government had been creating the virus and also the audience knows Judy is pregnant, this is at least 9 months.

One of 'The Crazies'

When looking at Claude Levi-Strauss’ theory of the binary opposites there are a few in The Crazies. Firstly good vs evil, which is an obvious binary opposite for a horror film genre as it is conventional. The audience can see that David and Judy are the good guys; this is because they want to everything to go back to normal and are trying to survive. The government however could be seen as the evil ones as well as the infected crazies, this is because they are the ones who are killing innocent people and they were the ones to release the virus in the first place. Another binary opposite is past vs present, this is because of the scene at the beginning with everything of fire. This is actually from the middle of the narrative and then we are shown 2 days before this occurred. There are different links made of past and present throughout the film. Another example is when they find the plane which crashed, as the audience we don’t get to see it but it happened 3 weeks before. The idea of this for the audience is for us to make links which include us within the film. Another binary opposite in the film is normal vs strange. The audience can see that there is a clear difference between ‘the crazies’ who are the infected and the normal humans such as David and Judy. The infected cannot think straight and want to kill everyone, which is a strange desire. The normal people are shown as living normally, an example of this is when Judy comes home with David and Russell to collect the care and she is taking down the washing off the washing line. She is trying to make it seem as normal as possible. Another binary opposite is order vs chaos; an example of this is again at the beginning the scene of the burning town then, it swaps to 2 days later when everything is normal and in order. In addition there is also order and chaos in the characters; at the beginning it shows David and Judy. At first you can see the town is very well run, with a sheriff and deputy as well as doctor and nurses however then when the virus spreads people are going wild, killing each other which create the chaos. There are a few more binary opposites in which I think are in this film, these include: sanity vs insanity, healthy vs unhealthy, alive vs dead. All these are to do with ‘The Crazies’ in relation to David, Judy, Russell and Becca.

Deputy (Russell), Sheriff (David),
Judy and Becca

Vladimir Propp identified 8 character roles after looking at over 100 folk tales which include:

Hero – our main protagonist and victor.Villain – the bad character.
Donor – who provides an object or powers to the hero.

Helper – who aids the hero.

Princess – the hero’s ‘reward’ and object of the villain’s scheme.

Princess’s Father – who rewards the hero.

Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his way.

False Hero – the double agent who hinders the hero rather than helping him.
In the terms of The Crazies, it is clear that the hero is David Dutten, who is the sheriff of the town. He rescues his wife when the government takes her away as they think she’s got the virus, he is also alive at the end of the film. The donor and helper is the same character in this film who the deputy, Russell. He is the donor because firstly he gives his life to distract the government so that David and Judy can get away and he is the helper because he saves David’s life 3 times during the film. The princess is Judy, this is because she saves people and also is the reward for the hero in addition she also rewards the hero with a baby. The villain in this film is the US government and army, this is because they are the reason the virus exists and also they kill innocent people who they think have the virus. The villains are also the infected crazies as they do try and kill people, only because they have the virus because of the government. The false hero is the mayor; this is because he refuses to turn off the water. He thinks he is doing this for the good of the town people are they are a farm town who needs the water for crops etc, however he doesn't know that the water is infected.

In relation to ‘The Male Gaze Theory’ by Laura Mulvey I don’t think it plays a big role in this film; even though there were some females in the film, Judy and Becca. The females in this film appear to be smart as they are both doctors. They are not sexually objectified in the film, they are both covered up and in addition Judy is pregnant.

Judy is the final girl in this film, even though she is the ‘princess’ she is the reward for the hero. She doesn’t exactly fit the final girl theory by Carol Clover. This is because as Judy is pregnant the audience can assume she had sex even though we do not see it in the film. However she is smart because she is a doctor.

Halloween Analysis

Halloween was originally made in 1978 and is a horror film. The director was John Carpenter. The film is set in a quiet town, Haddonfield, Illinois which is a horror genre convention. This setting is common for a horror genre because it means that it could mean to anyone which creates fear for the audience. The plot of the film followers the psychopath antagonist Michael Myers after murdering his older sister Judith Myers. 15 years later on 30th October 1978, he escapes from a psychiatric hospital and begins murdering teenagers from his home town on the following day, which is Halloween. By having it set on Halloween night helps create the the horror iconography as there are pumpkin lanterns, children dressed in costumes and trick or treating. 

A sense of innocence when the audience finds out
that the killer is a little child.

Looking at Todorov’s narrative structure, Halloween closely follows his structure of equilibrium (the normality of the setting), disruption (something disrupting the equilibrium), recognition (the characters realise there is a disruption), resolution (trying to fix the disruption) and new equilibrium (everything goes back to normal) however I think there is two sets of this narrative. The film starts with a very brief equilibrium, this is of Judith Myers and her boyfriend. There is a use of point of views shots and silence to build up the tension within the narrative which keeps the audience hooked. By using these they are following some conventions of the horror genre. Then it’s the first disruption, which is Michael Myers killing his sister. The recognition is when his parents find Michael with the knife, there is a sense of innocence when we see the killer is actually a little boy. The resolution is when Michael is sent off to the psychiatric hospital and then there is a new equilibrium created. However; then a new set of Todorov’s narrative structure is set. Then the other disruption is when Michael Myers escapes the hospital, we then see an equilibrium of Laurie and her friends lives. There is a use of non-diagetic music, this builds up the tense and intensifies the fear and suspense.The recognition is Laurie realises Myers is trying to kill her and her friends and the resolution is then when Laurie thinks she kills him and a new equilibrium could happen, however we then see his body has gone, so there isn’t really a resolution to this film. However as there is a sequel, that might be the resolution. I think it does follow this structure, however not fully. This is because firstly the first set of Todorov’s narrative structure is in order, however the second set the audience see the disruption because they see the equilibrium and there is a resolution.

Another narrative theory is binary opposites which was introduced by Claude Levi-Strauss. Binary opposites are sets of opposite’s values which reveal the structure of media texts. In Halloween there is a binary opposite of good vs evil, which is Laurie and Michael Myers. Laurie being good is supported by her being good at school and not drinking or having sex. By having binary opposites helps to develop our understanding the narrative. Another binary opposite from Halloween is smart vs stupid; this is demonstrated in Laurie and her friends. Laurie cares about her studies and is smart meanwhile her friends don’t care which ultimately leads them to their deaths. By having this opposite it also suggests the final girl theory. There is also an opposite of past vs present, this is used when Myers kills his sister and he is put into the hospital in comparison to the present when is he back in the present day. Another one I think is used in this film is light vs dark. This is because in the day their lives are normal and compared to the dark when Myers tries to kill them. The use of lightening at night creates the tension in the film. There is a use of small motivated lighting to create shadows and creates fear. 

Vladimir Propp identified 8 character roles after looking at over 100 folk tales which include:
Hero – our main protagonist and victor.

Michael Myers with a knife. This image
demonstrates he is a villain.

Villain – the bad character.
Donor – who provides an object or powers to the hero.
Helper – who aids the hero.
Princess – the hero’s ‘reward’ and object of the villain’s scheme.
Princess’s Father – who rewards the hero.
Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his way.
False Hero – the double agent who hinders the hero rather than helping him.
It is common to have one character play more than one character, an example of this is the donor and helpers. In Halloween the hero is Laurie, she is the main protagonist and is the one to fight against the villain, Michael Myers. This is unconventional as stereotypically the hero is male. Michael Myers is the villain because he kills his sister and then returns to the town to kill Laurie and her friends, the audience has an idea how truly evil he is. Dr Loomis is the helper, this is because he is trying to track down Michael Myers and stop him. Not many others of Propp’s characters are used in this movie as there isn’t a quest to be set on.

As I said before Laurie demonstrates the final girl theory by Carol Clover. Even though Laurie is also the hero she follows the final girl theory; this is because she is virginal, pure and does not smoke, drink or have sex. She is good at school and is smart. She has a name which is not traditionally feminine. In addition she has quite a masculine voice. By having all these traits it means that she survives until the end. In makes sense that she is the final girl and she is also the hero.

Laurie at school, shows she is a good girl getting on with her work. Also demonstrates as the equilibrium. 

Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space”. This basically means an event will occur and then consequences will follow. In Halloween I think there are a few moments which relate to this theory. First example of this is when Laurie drops the keys off at Michael Myers old house and he sees her through the window. This sets up the narrative for him to target her for the rest of the film. He follows her around, firstly killing her friends and finally tries to kill her, even though he is unsuccessful. Another event which has its consequences is that use of sex to tell the audience when that character is going to die. For example firstly Michael Myers kills his sister just after she has sex with her boyfriend. We don’t know if that was the reason he killed her, or if he is just pure evil. Another example is when Annie is was her way to meet her boyfriend assuming to have sex when Michael strangles her in the car. In addition Michael Myers also kills Lynda and her boyfriend after they have sex in Annie’s house.