Narrative Development

 

Our task was to create horror film following a narrative that was structured like the shark model. In terms of the film, this includes having the 'shark bite' which grips the audience at the beginning so that they keep watching. The body represents the development of the story and the tail is where the equilibrium is restored and the story ends.

In addition to this we had to alter our story to form an anti-narrative which challenged the conventional narrative structure.

 

 

An outline of our plot:

Our original ideas was about five friends who set off on a road trip to the beach. It starts with a happy equilibrium, all the friends are enjoying the journey. As they settle in the beach hut where they are staying, night approaches and an argument breaks out between a couple in the group and in an attempt to make it better, the girlfriend storms out onto the dark beach. As another friend sets off to find her and calm her down, she discovers she is missing. This is where the equilibrium is disrupted and life changes for all of the characters. In a series of events that follows, two other characters are killed in beach related 'accidents'. The two girls become suspicious of each other. The smart girl discovers evidence to support her suspicions that the stupid girl is the killer and attempts to kill her. In a plot twist, the girls fight as they both try to overpower each other. The smart girl is thrown to the floor by the stupid girl and as she falls 'trophies' she had kept from her murders are exposed, revealing her as the real killer. She pleads for a second chance and explains why she did it (complicated relationships and a reason for murdering each victim which makes the audience sympathise with the murderer). The stupid girl shows her mercy but phones the police as she had to face the consequences of her actions. However this was just a bluff and the smart girl goes to kill her when she has let her guard down, but fails as the stupid girl was bluffing too. Equilibrium is restored as the main character is spared and the threat has been eliminated.

 

 

Propp Theory of Character Type

We tried to include as many characters that could fit the character type from Propp's theory of narrative. However to make the horror more interesting, we put the characters into more than one. For example, the damsel/princess, is believed to be hunted down throughout the film but in the end could be described as the hero because she saves herself and serves justice for the villain.

 

Levi-Strauss Binary Oppositions

The "hero" (the stupid girl) and "villain" (smart girl) are also taken from Strauss' binary oppositions and are binary opposites due to their intelligence and because they are good and evil. I have included a picture example of how I imagine they would look, above. This is clearly demonstrated by their clothing as the "villain" is dress in black and is scowling whereas the "hero" is light (representation of purity) and has a happy expression. The villain wanted the hero dead but did not succeed.

 

Anti Narrative:

Our anti-narrative is an adaption of the original narrative and is restructured to start with a disrupted equilibrium with an obvious sense of tension between the characters. There is a false sense of security in the middle as the mood seems to lighten but the end of the story results in a gory ending to the characters as they are defeated by the villain and the villain wins, leaving the threat to possibly kill again.