Jamie Lee Curtis: From ‘Halloween’ to ‘Halloween’

Back in 1978, future Hollywood superstar Jamie Lee Curtis began her film career with a little horror film called Halloween. Directed by John Carpenter, the film starred Curtis as a teenage babysitter terrorized by a masked madman on Halloween night. It became an instant hit with audiences, spawning a franchise and instantly establishing Curtis as one of the all-time greatest scream queens.

Carpenter knew there was something special about Curtis and cast her in a lead role in his next horror film, The Fog. A cult classic in itself, the 1980 movie focused on a mysterious fog which surrounds a California town, bringing with it the spirits of murderous ghosts. A hit at the box office, fans of the genre loved the film, but Curtis was still just getting started.

A few months later, Curtis would again take on a lead role in the horror film Prom Night. Directed by Paul Lynch, this slasher flick starred Curtis as a high school senior whose prom is attacked by a vengeful maniac. Prom Night became Canada’s highest-grossing horror film of 1980, and Curtis nabbed a Genie Award nomination for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress.

The scream queen would appear in yet another horror film that year, starring in Roger Spottiswoode’s Terror Train. As the title suggests, the film takes place on a moving train, with a group of medical students holding a costume party. Things go awry when an unknown murderer starts killing them off, adopting their costumes to keep his presence hidden. As with the other Curtis horror films, Terror Train has since become a cult classic.

After providing a voice cameo in the John Carpenter film Escape from New York, Curtis took on another horror role in 1981’s Roadgames. In this Australian film, Curtis plays a hitchhiker assisting a truck driver (Stacy Keach) in tracking down a ruthless serial killer. The film would later serve as an inspiration for 2005’s Wolf Creek, and Quentin Tarantino has even called it one of his favorite movies.

That same year would also see Curtis reprise the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween II. Set directly after the events of the first film, Laurie’s battle with Michael Myers culminates in a fiery showdown at the local hospital. This was intended to be Curtis’s final portrayal as Laurie, as Carpenter took the series in another direction with Halloween III: Season of the Witch, although the scream queen provided a voice cameo for that film as well.

After narrating the 1982 documentary Coming Soon, Curtis began to venture outside of the horror genre. Her performance in 1983’s Trading Places would make her an even bigger star, opening up opportunities for more major roles. Over the next 15 years, Curtis would carve a spot for herself in Hollywood, appearing in many different kinds of movies, including Blue Steel, My Girl, A Fish Called Wanda, and True Lies.

In 1998, with twenty years having passed since the start of her film career, Curtis revisited her roots with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Ignoring the other sequels past Halloween II, the film featured the return of Laurie Strode who comes face to face with Michael Myers once again. For longtime fans of the series, this was amazing, and its poetic ending of Laurie beheading Michael was a picture perfect way to cap off the story.

Unfortunately, contract obligations called for Curtis to reprise the role again in 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection. Controversially, this film retconned H20‘s “happy” ending, placing a demented Laurie Strode in an insane asylum. She winds up being killed off in the opening scenes of the film, which always felt like not only a disservice to the character, but to Curtis herself. The actress herself has called the infamous sequel “a joke,” and that’s the consensus with most fans as well.

Following that debacle, Curtis would stay away from the horror genre again for many more years. She would take on several comedy film roles, including Freaky Friday, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and Christmas with the Kranks. It was unclear at this point if we’d ever see Curtis in horror again, and it began to seem that the scream queen’s work in the genre might have been over.

However, Curtis would eventually return to horror in 2015 by appropriately starring on the Fox series Scream Queens. Her role on that show as Dean Munsch earned Curtis a Golden Globe nomination, as she was one of the most entertaining characters. The show concluded after running for two seasons, but as it turns out, the legendary horror star still wasn’t through with her work in the genre.

As we all know now, Curtis is set to reprise her role as Laurie Strode once again in this year’s new Halloween film from director David Gordon Green. Throwing out every single sequel in the series, the new film serves as a new Halloween II, with a modern-day Laurie Strode laying in wait for Michael Myers to return to Haddonfield. Just as she’s always feared, Michael escapes captivity and resumes his killing spree, and it’s up to Laurie to finally end his madness once and for all.

Released exactly 40 years after the original film, Curtis’s amazing career has come full circle. By ignoring Resurrection, we now have a chance to give Curtis – and Laurie Strode – the proper sendoff from Halloween that is truly deserved. Jamie Lee Curtis has had an amazing career, and has shined everywhere she has ever appeared. But she has clearly never forgotten the role that got her started, and never will the rest of us.

Watch David Gordon Green’s Halloween when it premieres in theaters on Oct. 19, 2018. Its early reviews are mostly stellar, and the film is currently the highest-rated in the series since Carpenter’s original. Check out the official trailer below.

Synopsis: Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

What’s your favorite Jamie Lee Curtis film? Will you be catching the new Halloween? Tell us about it below!

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