Linear Horror
Linear Narrative is a term used to describe literature and films that are in chronological order. This is a more popular way of creating a movie, because it makes more sense to have everything in the order it happened, rather than having everything jumbled up and confusing. There isn't really much to say about a Linear Narrative as it is the ordinary way of structuring a movie. Flashbacks are often mistaken for being a Linear Narrative as you have the main storyline in chronological order, however this is actually a Non-Linear Narrative as you are jumping back and forth between the present and the past.
Non-Linear Horror
Non-Linear Narrative is a term used to describe literature and films that are not in chronological order. This is often used to help audiences understand a characters backstory, shown in flashbacks, although it is sometimes used to give a movie a different feel by having the events in a weird order. Some examples of this type of movie would be:
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500 Days of Summer (2009), this film uses a series of memories and a Non-Linear order. Between days 1 and 500, there are a few different scenes that do not appear in chronological order, and this is not just because it would be an interesting order to see things. The different memories put together are juxtaposed, one memory will show Tom and Summer happy in their relationship, and then the next will show him heartbroken. This is a really clever use of the Non-Linear structure as it is used to contrast the different feelings of the main character.
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Pulp Fiction (1994), this film uses the Non-Linear narrative to show a series of three related storylines about a crime and a briefcase. The film is stuck together by the scene in the diner, but for that scene to play out, you need a lot more information, which is where the Non-Linear narrative comes in. This structure also gives us three perspectives for us to understand what is happening overall.
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For our OTS, we have decided to use a Non-Linear Narrative, in the structure of flashbacks. We decided this would be a good way of structuring our sequence because, it is an interesting way of doing things, and it will give you more context and insight into our main characters life.