Todorov's Narrative Theory

Todorov suggested that there a 5 stages to a conventional narrative, which are:

• 1    A state of balance for the characters lives at the beginning
• 2    Something disrupts the balance of their lives
• 3    The characters recognize that something is wrong and it needs to be fixed
• 4    The characters take action
• 5    The problem is fixed and balance is restored.

The film "Dawn of the dead” which I analyzed is very similar to this structure of narrative, although this film begins without a state of balance, which is similar to the film "Se7en" as well. It may be common for horror films to start within a state of unbalance and fear to immediately draw the audience into the scary situation but not all horror films follow the same path because some may want the audience to experience what the characters go through when they discover the problem but some may want the audience to immediately know that something is wrong, "Dawn of the dead" does this by beginning the film with the world already being infested with zombies. Many horror films also end without the problem being resolved such as "my bloody valentine" which I think is done on purpose to leave the audience still fearful at the end of the movie and have a lasting effect rather than a happy ending. I think that this structure or framework may not be able to apply to all genres because they all tell different stories. Our opening title sequence follows closely to these 5 steps but also deviates from them where the characters try to escape the problem. Each film tells a different story so therefore it is difficult to generalise this theory to all films especially when films want to leave the audience with a different message or emotion at the end so that they do not become repetitive and boring.