Character Therory in Mystery/Horror

During the process of brainstorming ideas for this project, I thought about how audiences would perceive the character that we were coming up with. Would they like him? Would they hate him? These thoughts led me to research more about character theory.

What is Character Theory?

Vladimir Propp's character theory states that characters can be classified into specific roles in order to create a narrative. He argues that there are seven types of characters, but for this film, we will focus on the false hero. A false hero is defined as a character who appears heroic but is actually selfish and manipulative. (also known as the anti-hero)

Characteristics

• Not necessarily evil
• Selfish
• Wants something

This will tie in with our film directly since the audience will see that the main character is the anti-hero. He is a doctor, what many people would consider a hero, but throughout the movie, it shows how he has a dark side and uses his position to benefit himself. He is the main character of the movie but there will still be other roles that come into play the rest of the movie.

Sources:

Kiehn, Nathan. “Propp’s 8 Dramatis Personae.” Owlcation, 20 Sept. 2023, owlcation.com/humanities/Propps-Dramatis-Personae.

“Media Language 2 - Media Studies: Eduqas GCSE.” Senecalearning.com, senecalearning.com/en-GB/revision-notes/gcse/media-studies/eduqas/1-1-2-media-language-2.