This October’s Halloween “rebootquel” will see Jamie Lee Curtis, the original star of the franchise, return as Laurie Strode to face off against Michael Myers again for the first time since 2002. This is the second instance that Curtis has made a belated comeback to the series, though, after she reprised her role in 1998’s Halloween H20, which apparently wasn’t a great experience for her.
While speaking to Variety, Curtis revealed that H20 ended up being a job she did for the paycheck rather than a film she took on from an artistic standpoint. That said, the actress made clear that the project began with the best of intentions but somewhere along the way, her interest in the production waned, for reasons that she doesn’t clarify.
“H20 started out with best intentions, but it ended up being a money gig. The film had some good things about it. It talked about alcoholism and trauma, but I ended up really doing it for the paycheck.”
Despite Curtis’ feelings, H20 is widely seen as one of the best Halloween sequels. It has a strong cast including Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams and Curtis’ own mother Janet Leigh (Psycho) and benefits a lot from once again focusing on Laurie. However, just because it’s one of the better sequels of the series doesn’t mean all that much and the film hasn’t held up as well as some of its contemporaries.
H20 might have ended up failing to recapture the atmosphere of the 1978 classic, but that’s the aim of Blumhouse’s Halloween, which will wipe out every subsequent entry in the franchise from continuity – even doing away with the long-held explanation that Michael and Laurie are siblings. Hopefully, they’ve pulled it off and Jamie Lee Curtis won’t see this as another “money gig ” in the years to come.
