Narrative theory research.

                          Paranormal Activity 3

The film I have chosen is Paranormal Activity 3.

Brief Summary:  Paranormal Activity 3 is a follow on from both ‘Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Activity 2.’ This film revolves around both sisters Katie and Kristi which you saw as adults in Paranormal Activities and Paranormal Activity 2 but this time we see them from when they were children due to us going back and watching video footage of them when they were younger. The movie tries to show how the demon has been affecting them since childhood and it clears up the curse that the Grandmother has placed on the family. The film continues to go on showing how Katie's sister has an imaginary friend called Toby who in reality is the demon that’s causing all the issues.

How does Todrov’s theory apply to the main narrative of the film?

Todrov had a theory that there are 5 different steps when it comes to a story.

·        Equilibrium

·        Moment Of Disequilibrium

·        Disequilibrium

·        Restored Order

·        New equilibrium

At the beginning of the film everything seems pretty normal. This is because all that’s happening is that old films of when Katie and Kristi were younger are being looked at by Kristi and Daniel. This would be classed as the equilibrium of the film as everything seems to be going perfectly fine and there is a nice balance, everything seems to be going smoothly. Kristi and Daniel and just living a normal every day to day life.

Next as an audience we simply start to look back at life when Katie and Kristi were children. The next thing we witness is that Dennis and Julie (Julie being the mother and Dennis being her boyfriend) make an attempt at making a sex tape and suddenly get interrupted due to an unexpected earthquake. When looking through the camera footage Dennis  soon realises that dust seems to be falling from the ceiling and lands onto an invisible figure within the room that’s standing in front of the camera. This leads to Dennis being in shock and placing cameras around the house to capture footage. This can be seen as the moment of disequilibrium within the film as this is where something bad has occurred but this is only the very start of it.

Next, strange things begin to happen around the house such as Kristi begins to wake up a extremely odd times and talks to someone that can’t be seen. She claims its someone called Toby. Dennis also finds very strange drawings of symbols in a cupboard in the girls room. The symbols that had all been drawn are in a book about ‘demonology.’ Other strange things begin to happen too, Kristi strangely and unexpectedly falls extremely ill so Dennis asks his friend Randy to look after Katie while they take Kristi to the doctors. Randy ends up getting attacked and witness’ a black figures movement, things seem to be messed with and objects get violently thrown across the room, and so on, Things like this happen numerous times. This can be classed as the disequilibrium of the film due to the characters starting to realise that things are going wrong and a lot of mysterious things are happening to the family within the house.

Then due to Dennis and Julie seeing footage and experiencing things they then realise what’s going on so they then decide to go to the grandmothers house (also known as Lois.) This is so that the family can get away from everything that is happening within their home. This can be seen as the restored order as Julie and Dennis are trying to put things right by moving away from the problem and trying to start a fresh life. Although this doesn’t go to plan.

Once the family have moved in with Lois things only get worse. Julie and Dennis all of a sudden seem to get haunted by whatever it is that’s following both them and their family. Again weird things happen within Lois’ home such as strange people appearing, things being flung across the room etc. Julie and Dennis end up being killed supposedly due to Toby, although Lois, Katie and Kristi were all part of the plan. As soon as Julie and Dennis have been killed a new and almost ‘happy family’ has been reformed. Lois, Katie, Kristi and Toby. This can be said to be the new equilibrium as things are not the same but everything has gone back to a normal steady balance. The problem has been defeated and the peace has soon returned even though things have changed an awful lot.

Levi-Strauss: How many example of binary opposites are there?

·        Young VS Old

·        Black VS White

·        Girl VS Boy

·        Good VS Evil

·        Scared VS Fearless

·        Open VS Secretive

·        Strong VS Weak

·        Human VS Demon

Propp: Character types and how many are there?

Propp has a theory that within a story there are 7 main characters, there are:

·        The Princess

·        The Hero

·        The Villain

·        The False Hero

·        The Dispatcher

·        The Donor

·        The Helper

In Paranormal Activity 3 we are able to witness several different character types.

First of all we have the ‘demon’ of the film named Toby which would be classed as the ‘Villain’ due to him being the one in the film to cause trouble to the people and environment around him. We can tell that ‘Toby’ is the villain of the film due to the mayhem that has been caused. For example, things being thrown across the room, terrorising the family, attacking people etc.

The princess of the film would be both Dennis Julie and Katie due to them being the helpless ones as they are frightened and unaware of what’s going on. Therefore they’d be classed as weak. The princess is the one who stereotypically needs saving and these three genuinely do as Toby is thriving off of their fear.

You could also probably say that Kristi is also a princess of the film as its almost as though she wants to get away from Toby but the whole time she’s actually on his side the whole time. Therefore we could say that Kristi is the donor of the film as she tries to help Toby along his way to complete certain things. Normally Propp would say that the donor of the film is someone that helps the hero but her we can see the roles have been changed and the donor has become someone who ends up helping the villain.

The helper of the film could be both Julie and Dennis due to them being the helper to each other. They can also be classed as the heroes as they are trying to be strong and brave about everything that is happening and they also try to protect the family by acting like the problem isn’t there until things get worse. If anything Julie becomes more of a helper to Dennis later on into the film as she starts to believe what’s going on due to her witnessing paranormal events. Therefore she sticks by ‘The heroes’ side, Dennis, so she can help him on his mission to find out what’s actually going on.

In Paranormal Activity 3 we could say that there are two false heroes. This is because when Dennis, Julie and the two girls move out to live with the grandmother, Lois we witness her being a very welcoming and trustworthy women. Katie, the sister of Kristi is also seen to be really innocent, weak and helpless as she is pretty much oblivious as to why all of this is going on. We then soon find out that Lois and Katie are just as evil as Toby and Kristi and was all a part of their scheme from the start. We know this due to the way that they turn on Julie and Dennis and end up killing them. Therefore they were all on Toby’s side all along.

Id personally say that the dispatcher of the film is people like Dennis’ friend, Randy and the baby sitter for Katie and Kristi. This is because they’re the ones that know something is going on within the house due to them witnessing things. They then let Dennis know that there is ‘evil’ within their home or react in a weird way because they’re too scared to tell him what’s actually going on. This then leads to ‘The hero’ Dennis, investigating what’s going on and trying to solve the problem.

Barthes Theory

Barthes has a theory that within every story you have 4 different codes.

·        Action Codes

·        Key Enigma Codes

·        Semantic and Symbolic Codes

·        Culture references

Action Code: One action code within the film is when Julie is standing in the kitchen and staring into space. Us as an audience wonder what she’s doing and what’s going to happen next. Is she staring at something? Is somebody there?. We soon realise that the table, chairs and everything else has been lifted up and thrown back to the floor. Again us as an audience didn’t expect this.

Key Enigma Codes: An enigma code of this film is all the things that are getting thrown about within the house. As an audience this leaves us questioning why this is happening, who is doing it etc.

Semantic and Symbolic Codes: I personally didn’t come across and symbolic codes but an example of a semantic code was the drawings on the wall within the girls cupboard. The things that had been drawn were all demonology related and us as an audience have a vague idea about the drawings therefore we know they almost insinuate something to do with danger.

Culture References: Again I didn’t not come across any culture references.

How is time manipulated?

Due to there being sequels to this film we can see that the films are all actually going in chronological order, Although we do witness video tapes from when Katie and Kristi were younger are being watched. Therefore it’s almost as though they are flashbacks/ going back in time to witness old memories.