The Hermeneutic or Enigma Code is the genre theory I believe fits best within our project idea. This theory is one of the Narrative Codes by Roland Barthes and the description for the theory is as follows; when a narrative withholds information to develop mystery or leave a plot point unexplained. Our film idea is about this mysterious woman, Elena, who is a serial killer and her victims are men she has dates with after meeting them online. In this film, her victim is a man named Jackson and the entirety of the film would be a cat-and-mouse type of situation where she goes after him and attempts to kill him. Throughout the movie, Elena's and Jackson's motives are revealed and many plot twists follow. In the opening specifically, it will be Elena preparing for the date which will be shown through a montage of her setting up the dinner table and cooking the meals in the kitchen. At one point, Elena will drop a piece of cucumber to the floor and when she goes to pick it up with the knife still in her hand, there will be a flashback to her in the exact same position except her knife is now bloody and a dead man lays in front of her on the floor. The opening comes back to the present where she throws away the cucumber and inside the trash can reveals bloody towels and gloves. She walks over to the dinner table with a cucumber salad that she just chopped, places it down, and receives a notification that shows her date has arrived but under his notification is several other mens' profiles/messages stating they had just arrived to their place and that being their final messages, implying she killed them all and displays that she's a serial killer. At this point, her name is finally revealed as her date states her name in the message. The title card will then show after she smiles eerily at her phone and a doorbell will interrupt the title card and show the woman approaching the front door before the 2 minutes end right there.
This genre theory can be integrated into our project for one main reason and it's motive. For the entirety of the movie, Elena's motive as to why she kills all these men is unknown and she's not the only one with a mysterious secret as her date for this movie will also be a serial killer. The motive will eventually be revealed near the end of the movie when she realizes Jackson also intended to kill her by seeing that he deleted his Tinder account so it'd be harder for the police to track him, his ID shows his real name which isn't Jackson, he had a small bag of drugs that he planned to put inside her drink, he carried a pocket knife with him, and he had rope, zip-ties, duct tape, and other incriminating supplies inside the trunk of his car. Elena will end her attempts at killing him at this point as she explains that she's been looking for the man of her dreams; one who understood everything about her. The only reason Elena had tried to kill him is because Jackson would have realized that she was also a killer when going to the bathroom and stumbling upon a box in her room that held several of her victim's items and bloody clothes in her hamper. He went in the room because obviously, he isn't a normal person either and was being creepy. Jackson will then also admire that she's a killer too once she shows compromise and the two of them will become partners and "live happily ever after." In Purdue University's website going over the five Narrative Codes of Roland Barthes', Dino (2011) states that "we witness a murder and the rest of the narrative is devoted to determining the questions that are raised by the initial scene of violence," which describes our project idea perfectly as the audience witnesses the flashback and also Elena's attempts at murdering Jackson and ask themselves her motives for doing so. The Hermeneutic or Enigma Code is the best genre theory that aligns with our project and describes the main aspect (motive) of the idea perfectly.
SOURCE: Purdue University
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