Research Into Typical Synopsis

Horror films, like almost all films, tend to follow...

Todorov's theory of narrative, which says stories should be broken up into five stages. The story usually will begin with...

1: Equilibrium, which is often life in a suburban family home, a family moving into a new house etc. However, being a characteristically dark genre, this is not necessarily always the case; an excellent example of this would be Jennifer Kent's debut film 'The Babadook.' In it, the equilibrium of the mother-son relationship between the main characters is already broken, and the Babadook's arrival only deepens the disequilibrium.

2: Disequilibrium is when the equilibrium is broken in some way. This could be by a character becoming possessed, discovering that their house is haunted etc. Then, stage three begins, as...

3: The characters acknowledge the broken equilibrium. The characters could recognise that there is a ghost in the house, acknowledging it as real, whereas before they may have tried to deny its existence. Reverting to my point about 'The Babadook,' that film in particular also subverts stage three; this usually happens mid-way through the film, but in this example Essie only accepts the Babadook and confronts it towards the end. Stage four is when...

4: The characters attempt to mend the broken equilibrium. This could be when the characters decide to try and exorcise the spirit in the house etc. A seance scene often marks the point at which this begins, but of course is not the only way characters may try to defeat the antagonist of a horror film; trying to flee is of course also popular. Order is restored. Finally...

5: A new equilibrium is established in place of the old one, (but the two are not identical). Therefore, the narrative could be described as circular, as opposed to linear. A film that breaks this final rule is the 2012 thriller 'Sinister', in which the protagonist is murdered by his own daughter at the end of the film, and no equilibrium is met; unless one were to count the victory of evil as the new equilibrium, which is another way of looking at it.

There will also almost always be one or more protagonists and an antagonist. In horror, the antagonist is usually, but not always, supernatural. For example, in El Orfanato the antagonist is actually the child murderer, despite the audience initially being led to believe it is the ghost.

Examples of Horror film plots:

The Babadook

In Jennifer Kent's 2014 feature debut 'The Babadook,' the film's equilibrium (1) is a mother and son with a fractured but consistent relationship. This equilibrium is broken (2) when a mysterious book arrives in the house, which sets free a demonic presence known as 'Mr Babadook.' After much self-doubt, the mother eventually has to acknowledge the creature is real and not purely in her imagination (3), and eventually she defeats Mr Babadook by confronting the creature (4), agreeing to let it remain in the house provided it causes no further harm. This is the new equilibrium (5). One interesting thing about this particular film is that the equilibrium could be considered as having been broken long before the events of the film with the death of Samuel's father, which drives an emotional wedge between him and his mother. Therefore, this film follows Todorov's theory reasonably well, but is not totally rigid in the way it does so.

El Orfanato

In Juan-Antonio Bayona's 'El Orfanato,' the equilibrium(1) is a mother (protagonist) , father and son living in an old orphanage where the mother grew up. The son goes missing (2), shattering the equilibrium, and the mother soon realises (3) and begins to look for him (4). She also fears that there may be a ghost in the house after hearing banging noises at night. Eventually, the mother finds out that the ghost she has been seeing is a deformed boy who drowned after being bullied by children at the orphanage, and that the mother of this boy killed several children the protagonist grew up with as revenge. Fearing that she also killed the son, the mother confronts her, but the murderer is hit by a car. Eventually, the mother realises that she accidentally trapped her own son in the basement, killing him. However, now knowing that the spirit realm exists, she overdoses on sleeping pills, committing suicide, before being reuinted with her son's ghost. This marks the new equilibrium (5). It could be argued that the horror elements in this film are actually a plot device to soften the blow of the mother's decision to commit suicide for the audience, as we know she will live on.

Insidious

In James Wan's 'Insidious,' the equilibrium is a family moving into a new house (1). This equilibrium is shattered when the young boy in the family falls from a ladder and winds up in a coma (2), at which point he is possessed by a demon. The family initially believe that the house is haunted, but a medium tells them it is their son. They acknowledge this (3) and employ a medium to try and exorcise the demon (4). Finally, the father has to go into a spirit realm known as 'The Further' in order to rescue the son. He succeeds, but is possessed himself and murders the medium and her team, and this marks the establishment of a new but still imperfect equilibrium (5). As with most horror films, the initial equilibrium is damaged further and further until the final act, as the demon becomes more and more aggressive. There are several twists along the way such as the introduction of a second antagonist, the Old Woman, which serve to further damage the equilibrium.

Sinister

In 'Sinister,' the equilibrium is a family moving into a new house (1), which unbeknownst to all but the father (a crime writer and our protagonist) is the site of a recent murder. The equilibrium is broken (2) when the father finds some old super-8 films in the the attic, each depicting a horrific murder. In each of these cases a demonic figure can be seen, and acknowledging that this must be linked to the supernatural (3) the protagonist contacts an occult specialist. He advises the writer that the entity, known as 'Bughuul,' lives in images and can emerge from them to steal children. The writer burns the films in an attempt to contain the entity and moves house (4), but the films appear at the new house, undamaged. Eventually the demon takes command of the writer's daughter and makes her murder her whole family. The new equilibrium (5) sees the demon successful, as he takes the child into his realm. Interestingly, the equilibrium here is a negative one, which seems increasingly less common in modern horror.

Jude White