Narrative Theories applied to 'The Witch' Trailer

When viewing the trailer for the recent film 'The Witch' I have identified different parts of the different narrative theories.

The first of these theories I managed to identify elements of was Binary Opposition by Levi Strauss. I managed to identify families taking care of each other and playing together, this is contrasted by the curse that plagues the village later on in the trailer making this a big battle between innocence and evil. I also identified religion vs satanic elements making this quite a religious battle as well. We see the contrast between outside and inside, with the majority taking place outside in the unknown which adds to the horror feeling. Other common opposites we see love vs hate, human vs nature, children vs adults and light and dark.

Another theory I explored was Todorov's theory, in this trailer we established an equilibrium, although it wasn't very settled and didn't give us the feeling that everything was particularly great. When the child goes missing we establish that things have been thrown off balance and the curse begins to plague the locals. Towards the end of the trailer we do begin to realise the characters have recognised that something is wrong and have began to try to remove the curse, but because this is just a trailer we don't see the outcome and how the equilibrium is resolved.

The final theory we looked at was Propp. I established that the man at the start of the trailer would fill the roll of 'the helper'. The woman who the film is about would be either the 'false hero' or the real 'hero' but this is not established as this is just a trailer and not the entire film. The villain I though within this film was the curse itself, although others may argue that the girl is actually the villain as she is the witch, but we don't see her acting villainous and we see her more as a victim of the curse than anything. I identified the mother as the princess character, and finally the dispatcher being woman who says ''You have cursed this family'' as evidenced, not all of the archetypal characters are present within the trailer and the same can be said for many films, but the main ones have been identified.