Narrative Essay

I have created a horror film trailer for a psychological horror which covers the loss of innocence/ the evil within.

In our summer trailer we have touched on Todorov’s theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium and resolution by beginning the trailer with our protagonist in her fairly sane, yet childlike state. We have presented this character this way through the use of dolls, a child’s toy and an icon of the horror films. We have created a transition to disequilibrium through shots of her limited medication, which without, she is unable to keep ‘sane’, causing her to behave abnormally, such as how she now freely damages the dolls, which was she previously established to have a close connection to. We have not included the film’s resolution in order to avoid giving away the ending, and to intrigue the audience into seeing the film. We could have used this theory more effectively by presenting more clips from the middle and closer to the end of the story, as our trailer focuses on the start of the story, avoiding the main action and suspense of the story. Trailers typically avoid plot heavyweight scenes, and focus on a montage of action throughout the whole film. The end of a film is also avoided to avoid spoilers, and retain the sense of mystery.

Another theory which applies to our trailer is Claude Levi-Strauss’s theory of binary opposites. Although we have only introduced one character, many binary opposites are established such as sane/insane, which can be seen through our protagonist’s lack of medication, restricting her from having control of her own body, resulting in another opposition: Good vs evil, as while this character appears to be innocent at first, her lack of control causes her to become her own antagonist as her inner evil is released. Binary opposition is an essential part of a film, as it allows for the viewer to distinguish the contrast between the protagonist's morals and intentions with the antagonist's. while our protagonist and antagonist share the same body, we seperated the two characters through changes to their appearance, and the agressive manner in which the antagonist treats the dolls, in comparison to the protagonist's playful behaviour. the antagonist also utilizes the knife which the protagonist ignores.

We have included Roland Barthes’ theory of enigma codes in our trailer, through how we have avoided giving away key details about the character’s backstory, as she is first introduced isolated in her room with her dolls as a teenager, without any context to her childhood traumas. This could leave the viewer wondering why she is living this unconventional lifestyle. Although we have made the film’s disequilibrium apparent, (the lack of medication, and calls for help) we have purposely avoided showing footage of the resolution. This intrigues the audience, making them wonder what the outcome of the story will be.

Although our trailer only focuses on one singular character, Vladimir Propp’s theory that narratives focus on specific character types (archetypes) is still present in our trailer, which tells us that while we are tackling a realistic everyday issue, our concept has still been adapted to suit a fictional horror story. in our character plays the role of the victim, of her own mind/lack of control, as well as a protagonist as she must fight against her own mind to free herself from evil. Yet she, or more specifically her mind, plays the role of the antagonist, the evil side of our innocent victim, which she must fight against to overcome.

Overall, I believe we have effectively implemented the theories of narrative into our trailer, however, for our finalised trailers, my aim is to present the film’s story more clearly, and focus on a much wider range of scenes, rather than focusing exclusively on the beginning. I also aim to make the distinction between binary opposites clearer, which may require a larger range of actors.