The Terror Narrative

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The Terror Narrative

• The terror narrative is one of the oldest story
  archetypes we have. It utilizes a fairly simple
  structure consisting of five parts.

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Element One

• The Figure or Event of Terror

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Figure/Event of Terror Example 1

• The figure or event of terror is almost always
  from the edge of human experience, such as the
  shark in Jaws. (Jaws is 48 on the American Film
  Institutes list of Americas 100 greatest
  movies.)

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Figure/Event of Terror Example 2

• The figure of terror is significantly removed
  from human social reality, such as the
  psychopathic killer in Halloween, Michael Myers.
  In the movie, Michaels psychiatrist refers to
  him as an it.

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Figure/Event of Terror Example 3 4

• Hollywood has made millions off the American
  publics fascination with serial killers. Here
  are two of the biggest box office murderers
  Jason Vorhees from The Friday the 13th series,
  and Hannibal Lechter from The Silence of the
  Lambs. Both men are beyond comprehension.
  (Silence of the Lamb is 65 on AFIs top 100
  list.)

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More on Hannibal the Cannibal

• Hannibal Lechter, in particular, is an
  interesting case. On the surface he appears
  quite human. His actions, though, clearly
  distance him from any sort of normalcy that we
  can imagine. In many ways, he is the most
  horrific of terror figures in that he represents
  an absolute perversion of humanity. Yet his
  charismatic effect on us is chilling.

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Figure/Event of Terror Example 5

• Of course, Steven Spielbergs Jurassic Park has
  its own island full of terror figures dinosaurs.
  You dont get much more removed from normal
  American life than having a T-rex chase you
  across an isolated island.

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Figure/Event of Terror Example 6

• Early in the 1979 blockbuster Alien, we witness
  an encounter with the offspring of the deadly
  aliens. It doesnt get much more foreign to us
  than being an alien!

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Element Two

• Confinement

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Confinement Example 1

• What makes the terror compelling is that the
  person cannot escape. If someone could just run
  away easily, they would. If they cant, its a
  problem. Think about how true this is in a movie
  such as The Blair Witch Project.

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Confinement Example 2

• Consider how different Stephen Kings The Shining
  would be if it took place at the Motel 8
  downtown. Much of the eeriness of the story
  comes from the sheer isolation of these
  snow-trapped guests in a nearly-empty cliffside
  hotel in the middle of winter.

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Confinement Example 3

• In Halloween, consider how when Jamie Lee Curtis
  runs into the house to escape Michael Myers, he
  gets in. She goes upstairs (effectively cutting
  her available space in half), then he goes after
  her. She ends up hiding in a closet, which is
  about the smallest place one can hide. And, of
  course, Michael goes after her there too.

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Element Three

• The Truth is Hidden

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The Truth is Hidden Example 1

• As viewers or readers, we really dont know much
  about the figure of terror. Its kept as a
  mystery to us. In the bonus DVD footage of
  Alien, Ridley Scott talks about how he cut parts
  that made the aliens seem like insects (meaning
  we sort of could understand them since we sort of
  understand ants and bees, etc.). Scott wanted
  the aliens to be, well, alien.

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The Truth is Hidden Example 2

• Consider Freddy Krueger, the antagonist of
  Nightmare on Elm Street. How on earth does he
  enter ones dreams? If we knew, itd almost make
  it less scary somehow.

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Element Four

• The Cassandra Effect

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Cassandra Effect Example 1

• Cassandra is a figure from Greek mythology who
  had the amazing ability to always know the
  future. The problem? She was cursed. Anytime
  she told anyone, they wouldnt believe her.
  Hollywood has been making a mint off this single
  idea for decades. Its one way they create
  dramatic tension in movies. Its why we yell,
  Dont open that door! but the character doesnt
  listen, so they open the door and get eaten by
  the God-knows-what monster we saw a second
  before. And to our horror, we have to watch,
  powerless to stop it.

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Cassandra Effect Example 2

• Donald Pleasance, who plays the doctor who
  treated Michael Myers in Halloween, realizes that
  once Michael breaks out of the mental hospital
  that hes going back to his hometown to kill
  again. Donald tries to warn the police there,
  but no one listens.

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Cassandra Effect Example 3

• And we have Jeff Goldblum, who plays Dr. Ian
  Malcolm, a chaos theorist in Jurassic Park. When
  the scientists explain that they manipulate the
  dinosaurs DNA to make them all the same gender,
  he tells them that its impossible. They laugh
  at him.

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More on The Cassandra Effect

• Often, but not always, the Cassandra figure is
  one of the few people to survive the attack or
  event of terror. Theyre usually left as the
  broken old figure at the end of a dark bar,
  whispering to their half-finished drink, warning
  everyone to stay away from so and so or something
  terrible will happen. Yeah, right.

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Element Five

• The Place of Terror

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The Place of Terror Example 1

• Though not as exact an element as the other four,
  the place of terror is important, nonetheless.
  Terror narratives usually take place in an
  environment where humans cannot easily
  operate/live. The ocean. A deep forest. Outer
  space.

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The Terror NarrativeWrap Up

• So the terror narrativethe oldest and
  perhaps simplest story archetypehas five main
  parts.
• The Figure or event of terror
• Confinement
• The Truth is Hidden
• The Cassandra Effect
• The Place of Terror

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The Terror NarrativeFinal Thoughts

• Not all stories/movies will have all five parts,
  but most will in one form or another. Part of
  how Hollywood keeps movies fresh is by playing up
  one part in order to be different. Event Horizon
  is all about element one. The Blair Witch
  Project is all element two. The Abyss is all
  about element five. In short, Hollywood (and
  fiction writers) knows these elements and make
  good use of them. Now that weve identified what
  they are, we can spot them more clearly and see
  how some writers are working well within (or
  against) this tradition.