The four narrative theories

The four narrative theories are by Propp, Todorov, Levi-Strauss and Barthes.

Propp states there are eight main characters in any media text; The Hero, The Villain, The Helper, The Dispatcher, The Donor, The Princess, The Father, The False Hero. Often one character occupies multiple roles and not all of the later characters appear in all media texts. In our film the characters are as follows; Hero = Sammael, Villain = Lucas (the demon), Helper = Shelton, Dispatcher = Destiny (Sammael was born to do this), Donor = Dwayne & Shelton, Princess = Safer world, our film doesnt really have a father or a false hero.

Todorov states a narrative is driven by equilibrium, disruption, re-equilibrium. In our film the equilibrium is that Sammael is hunting the demons, the disruption is he has just killed an innocent police officer, and the re-equilibrium is that he saves the world and passes on his powers to another.

Levi-Strauss states that all narratives must have binary oppositions or conflicts between two sets of things. For example in ours it could be Good vs Evil, Sammael vs Demons or Alive vs Dead.

Barthes states the enigma code is in most films. The narrative is driven along by enigma then resolution. This is true for our film