Story development: The three act structure.

I have chosen to explore ‘Paranormal Activity 2’, a film I recently watched at the cinema. You can see a three act sequence in nearly every single movie and program. However when watching the program or film you hardly notice the setup, as it is the norm, but once you start to pick away you can clearly point out the various parts, this being the Beginnin, Middle and End or Establish, Crisis, Resolve.

Paranormal Activity 2 starts in a state of equilibrium, where a new baby named Hunter has just been born into the family. The family made up of father, Daniel, wife to Daniel and step mother to his daughter, Kristie and Daniels daughter Ali. However the equilibrium starts to break as the maid, Martine claims there are bad spirits in the house and is eventually made to leave by Daniel. From this point strange things start to become more and more frequent, for example where it had started with pans in the kitchen falling in the night, to the strange death of the dog and cupboards exploding open spontaneously all at the same time. However Daniel is determined not to believe anything strange is happening although the rest of the family is being heavily affected. This is what we call the crisis or the middle.

The resolution in this film is not a particularly happy one. The demon has been transferred to Kristie’s sister, Katie. However Katie becomes possessed and comes to take the baby and kills the family. This may not be your usual ‘resolution’ but the crisis the family were going through is finally over however it has now been moved over to another family.

Story Development: The Hero’s Journey

I am carrying on with looking at Paranormal Activity 2. However there is not a very clear ‘Hero’s Journey’ yet I have found elements that link to Campbell’s monomyth stages. For example I would call Ali the daughter the ‘Hero’ as she is trying to find the route to the problem. ‘Two Worlds’ could be the human world the family are living in vs. the world which the demon is coming from or Hell.

‘The Mentor’ I feel would be the research on the internet that Ali does to find out more about the strange happenings and what might be causing it, and so it is mentoring her, making her wiser and learning more. ‘The Oracle’ would be Martine the maid, as she had felt bad spirits and almost foretold what may happen to the family. She also could be some kind of mentor as she tries to help the family with her knowledge and faith. ‘The Prophecy’ is the first born male to be taken by the demon.

As you can see you can always find some elements of monomyths in any story no matter how old or new it is.