Horror Film Trailer Analysis'

The Representation of Women in Horror Films

The Crazies - A Film Analysis

The Crazies (2010) – Film Analysis

 The Crazies, is a 2010 horror film, directed by Breck Eisner. The film itself is a remake of the original 1973 version, both films loosely share the same storyline, only with modern CGI and cinematography being present in the 2010 version. The film is based in “the friendliest place on Earth”, Ogden Marsh, Iowa, in where the town’s sheriff, David (Timothy Olyphant) and his community doctor wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell) battle through the barbaric spread of the infectious Trixie virus. Accompanied by his loyal, yet perhaps dysfunctional Deputy, Russell Clank (Joe Anderson), the trio attempt to escape the town of Ogden Marsh, with conspiracies of a hidden governmental accident beginning to surface. This accident, being a plane crash, although not seeing within the film, the crash has been the primary cause to this outbreak of the virus. A secondary effect of the crash was contaminating the water supply, with the chemical released from the crash dissolving into the water network. As the residents on Ogden Marsh consume the water, the Trixie virus is also being consumed. The government, with help of the military, an incubation perimeter is constructed for the citizens of Ogden Marsh. The Trixie virus causes mental and physical decay, resulting in the killer and predatorial instincts of citizens to kill their neighbours. After many iconic action and death scenes, the final two remaining, David and Judy travel to the next town, only for the cycle, to continue.

The film received positive reviews at the box office, making an estimated $50 million by May 2010. It was praised for its uncommon intelligence and intensity, receiving a Rotten Tomatoes’ 6.4/10 rating. The film’s target audience would simply be, those who enjoy horror, however, as it focuses on a zombie/outbreak subgenre, it could focus on a younger, perhaps, teenage audience, despite it not primarily focusing on a teenage subgenre. This potential teenage audience, in the UK at least, could be challenged, due to the BBFC giving it an 18 rating, due to it’s graphic and sexual scenes.

Each horror film has it’s own style and codes and conventions, however their narrative structure can easily be compared. Bulgarian structuralist Tzvetan Todorov came up with the idea of a narrative shared amongst most American films. In where we start with an equilibrium, a state of normality, until an event disrupts this equilibrium. The knock-on effect of this event causes a chain of events to resolve the disequilibrium, known as the path to resolution. The solution (in most cases) is eventually found and there will become a new equilibrium, albeit different from the initial equilibrium, it’s still hold trademarks of a happy ending. This structural narrative, was labelled The Classic Hollywood Narrative/Structure (CHN).

Often, most films abide by the CHN, either consciously or subconsciously, however, in this case, The Crazies narrative structure is even harder to define. It contains elements of a Hollywood Narrative, however the beginning scene indicates that this is not in fact a typical Todorov narrative structure. The first scene we see of the film is houses burning, in the midst of a destroyed Ogden Marsh, however this scene, as we later find out, is set about 2/3 of the way into the film. We aren’t aware of the cause of this fire, with the text displayed 2 day earlier, we are transported back in time, to where the narrative begins. Although, this “2 day earlier” scene may seem the start of the narrative, we again later find out, in the whole frame of the narrative, it’s about a quarter of the way into the narrative. With the plane crash, being the initial start to the story, although it’s not seen on screen. Essentially, the film begins with the baseball game, and ending with David and Judy moving to Cedar Rapids, however, the actual narrative of the film, starts with the plane crash, ending with the escape. The time span of the film is approximately 100 minutes, the story or narrative is about 3 weeks long, although we only see 3 days of this story. So initially, The Crazies doesn’t follow the CHN, however if you alter some scenes of the film, it can apply to the CHN. If it didn’t start with the fire burning, and instead starting with the day of the baseball game. The initial equilibrium would be the baseball game, the disruption being the first infected Rory Hamill displaying abnormal behaviour whilst holding a shotgun, the path to resolution is to escape, with more and more neighbours being infected, the new equilibrium would be David and Judy going on Cedar Rapids to resume to normal, only for the effect of dramatic irony to be deployed, and for this outbreak to continue in Cedar Rapids. This manipulating of the CHN is what earned The Crazies it’s positive rating, although, not abiding by the CHN, can be risky, with a disjointed narrative. Overall, The Crazies don’t exactly abide by the CHN, however there are some elements linking to a Hollywood Narrative.

An important aspect to any film is the characters, and how their ideologies and actions can impact upon the audience. Some characters might be used to display a particular message, whereas as some may be used for the audience’s pleasure, linking to the Male Gaze theory. One theorist devised 8 character types, in relation to old Russian folk tales, Vladimir Propp.

In relation to Propp’s character roles, the Hero in The Crazies, is obvious the Sheriff, David. Even the role of the town’s Sheriff, shows that he has great responsibility in protecting the town. Of course, he survives, whilst protecting his wife along the way. His wife, Judy, therefore, is the princess. She needs help and loving assistance by David, especially as she is pregnant, this loving family bond, is perhaps the dominant set ideology, and thus why they survive. The villain in this circumstance isn’t clear, there is no clear evil. In comparison to Halloween (1978), they have a set evil, villain in Michael Myers, yet in The Crazies, there is no individual evil. Instead, the government could be blamed, due to their failed incubation period and mistreatment of townspeople. They are to blame for the cover up of the plane crash, and perhaps is the reason why the Trixie virus spread so quickly. The military can also be perceived as a villain, with them shooting an innocent boy and his mother, and then incinerating them. A third potential reason is the “zombies” themselves and their mentality to kill. Despite this being unintentional and the virus possessing them to do so, they are still evil in the sense of un-humane features and the killing of their neighbours. The donor character role is occupied the Deputy Sheriff, Russell Clark, who save the Sheriff’s life “3 times”, before his minor turn against the sheriff, only for him to sacrifice himself, for the greater good of dignity.

Claude Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary opposition. The oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. In the context of the Crazies, there a several, clearly defined binary opposition. One of the being the opposition of Sanity v Insanity. The sanity here, is the survivors, the un-infected, of whom have a slight awareness and consciousness about the virus outbreak.  Insanity, is those infected by the virus, their minds are possessed and programmed to kill. A clear example of insanity is when the local farmer is in his jail cell, and have several out-of-body spasms, indicating that this Trixie virus is taking over the citizens of Ogden Marsh. Another binary opposite is Alive v Dead, with the hero’s surviving, and the other side characters and citizens of Ogden Marsh, being dead. Although, some of them aren’t physically dead, they are dead in the sense of their personality and identity being wiped, and becoming infected with a worrying disease.

Each film has set durations, in terms of screen time, plot time and the story time. These ideas of duration where brought to fruition by theorist Bordwell and Thompson upon their work on cause and effect. In The Crazies, the screen duration is 100 minutes that of which is the time the film runs for, the plot duration is about 3 days, the film covers 3 days’ worth of action. Whereas,, the story duration is much longer, and extends for about 3 weeks. The 33 days shown for the plot duration is located near the end of the story timeline, with previous events not shown on film, having an impact on the situation which we see. The plane crash spilling chemical residue is an example of an event that took place before the film. This plane crash was an accident by the government, which was transporting a dangerous chemical. The crash was unfortunate, having a knock-on effect to the citizens of Ogden Marsh. The crash spilled this chemical throughout the town and landed in a nearby marsh/swamp. The chemical seeped into the water, contaminating it. Another event that took place before the film, which ultimately effected the plot duration, was the citizens drinking the contaminated water. The first of those being the person closest to the water supply, being the first to be contaminated. This is then where the plot begins, with Rory invading the baseball pitch, with his unresponsive behaviour with a shotgun, prompting the sheriff to shoot him. The consumption of the water spreads to more and more citizens, resulting in the government intervention of a 48 hour incubation period.

The Crazies representation of women is fairly limited due to the lack of female characters in the film. The Sheriff’s wife is quite masculine and is in fact the final girl of the film. She isn’t portrayed in a sexualised manner due to the fact she is pregnant. This love and strong connection between the Sheriff and his wife reflects the dominant ideology of an ideal lifestyle or The American Dream. A committed marriage with children is this idea of the dream, and is sought after by many. This is opposed to promiscuous women, who aren’t in a relationship and who are of teenage teats, who are often frowned upon, and can have a link to death. Becca is killed, and was displayed in a fairly provocative manner, linking to Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory.

In conclusion, The Crazies is a film that goes against the CHN, however, maintains many of the typical code and conventions of a modern day horror film. The film explores several different durations and how they all impact upon the audience.