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Time Loop Narrative: The Trope, the Films, the Legend.

By Anonymous
I am not a fan of scary movies. Murder documentaries? Yes. Horror films? Absolutely not, count me out. Unless it is Halloween and then my two best friends force me to see some kind of horror film in theaters with them. That being said, a few years ago, I was forced against my will to see Happy Death Day (Warning! This contains some spoilers), and was hit with the seemingly overplayed trope of the Time Loop, in which the protagonist is forced to relive her death over and over again, until she figures out who kills her. In this case, it was her sorority sister who poisoned her birthday cupcake. The film ends, and I left thinking, "wow! That wasn't too bad. It was cheesy, but kinda funny, and I only almost peed once during a jump scare." However, Hollywood does not seem to like having stand-alone films, and recently I saw previews for Happy Death Day II where it is now not only the protagonist who must relive her death day over again and escape multiple killings, but now her friends do too. It is the same concept: one of the never ending Time Loop. Many different kinds of narratives employ this trope, both in books, television, and in film as it feeds into our fascination of time. What is it and why the Time Loop? What is it about this trope that is equal parts frustrating and fascinating? W Magazine attempts to answer this question in their article "Russian Doll's Time Loop Narrative is Inspired By At Least 7 Other Movies and Shows" by Brooke Marine.

What became abundantly clear is that the Time Loop narrative is not restricted to one kind of "genre." The list includes the Netflix show Russian Dolls, Happy Death Day, 50 First Dates, The Good Place, Black Mirror, Before I fall, and others of the like. We know that Happy Death Day, as I mentioned above, is a horror-comedy, (Is that a real thing?), and 50 First Dates is more of a romantic comedy. Yet, these seemingly different narratives all include this Time Loop concept. Each protagonist, according to Marine, must relive the same day and fix what is broken, or rather, they are given infinite chances to "break the cycle... focus on linear and nonlinear conceptions of time, morality, and what it means to be a 'good' person" (Marine 2019). While some obviously fall into borderline cheesy cliche, they're all essentially trying to teach the audience concepts of morality with the help of the Time Loop.

Marine argues that all these Time Loop narratives are really just "do over" narratives, and I find that concept intriguing. Clearly others do too, or else we would stop creating the damn movies/shows/books. Perhaps the Time Loop narrative is there to function as a way to not only do the day over and learn or right a wrong, but to invite the audience in and exist within a narrative in different ways as the character/narrator does. Time obviously does not bend in real life as it does in the Time Loop narratives, but by consuming it, we can participate and root for the happy ending where the protagonist pushes her awful sorority sister out of a window for poisoning her on her birthday.
(I've linked the article below if anyone is interested in Time  Loop narrative).

https://www.wmagazine.com/story/russian-doll-netflix-groundhog-day-watch-list





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