Jamie Lee Curtis is an iconic scream queen, and we don’t just mean her brilliant turn in Scream Queens. The actress’ diverse career has covered many genres, from the action of True Lies to the mystery of Knives Out, but horror runs down its center like a chilled spine, and portraying ultimate final girl Laurie Strode is top of the list for Jamie Lee Curtis.
Curtis made her feature film debut in John Carpenter’s definitive slasher Halloween in 1978 and has returned to play Strode multiple times since. Halloween Ends suggests that the run stops in 2022, but you can never say never.
Strode may not have been the first final girl, but she’s by far the most famous. For over 40 years, Curtis has excelled at the role, taking on slasher Michael Myers at different stages of her life. While Myers is the franchise’s masked poster boy, Strode is the soul that the franchise can’t live without for too long. In 2018, David Gordon Green’s reboot trilogy sparked an all-new era for Laurie Strode that emphasized her importance. But that certainly wasn’t her first return. Curtis has stacked up other high-profile appearances over the decades and played an essential role in making the Halloween series one of horror’s most complicated franchises.
What are the Halloween franchise splits, and how is Jamie Lee Curtis involved in them?
The Halloween series has four distinct eras, all branching from John Carpenter’s classic original. Curtis has been involved in three of those — the fourth chapter comprising Rob Zombie’s interesting and mildly underrated two-set is a remake that recasts Laurie Strode.
The original Halloween sequence of six films is one of Hollywood’s legendary examples of diminishing returns. The third film was disconnected from the saga of Michael Myers, but the fourth to sixth installments picked up from the revelation that Laurie Strode is Myers’ long-lost sister at the climax of Halloween II. The so-called Thorn Trilogy shifted the focus onto Strode’s daughter, Jamie, after her mother’s off-screen demise.
For the franchise’s 20th anniversary, the franchise reset, ignoring the Thorn Trilogy and jumping 20 years on from the climax of Halloween II. Away from Haddonfield, the older Laurie Strode has become the headmistress of a boarding school attended by her son after faking her death and taking on a new identity. The family connection is crucial when Myers manages to track his surviving relatives down.
In 2018, the series reset again, this time ignoring all events since the original Halloween. While H20 showed Strode affected by PTSD and in hiding, the reset framed her as a virtual recluse, drinking heavily and making sure she’s ready for whatever tricks Michael may have up his proverbial sleeve. In this continuity, she’s more akin to Sarah Conner in Terminator 2, preparing for the inevitable. As the reset removes Halloween II from canon, Strode is no longer Myers’ sister.
Curtis’ character has three parallel timelines in the series, none pleasant and all defined by her connection to Michael Myers. It’s the series’ willingness to shift that has kept Strode central; new facets and intentions have kept Curtis returning to her most famous role. She may have played three different Laurie Strodes, but in the context of the series, she’s also played three different snapshots of a survivor’s life; the daughter, the mother, and the grandmother. It’s hard to think of another horror franchise that can do that.
The daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis was born on 22 November 1958 — less than a month after Halloween — making her under 20 when her debut movie hit theaters. So, here’s how old she was during every Halloween appearance.
Halloween (1978) — 19 years old
Released on Oct. 25, 1978, Halloween cemented the slasher genre and introduced masked murderer Michael Myers. At just 19, Curtis was refreshingly close to her character’s age (17), considering the slashers that followed — and that’s important for her longevity in the franchise. Laurie is the innocent babysitter who immediately gains Myers’ attention when she posts some keys through the front door of his old family home. From there, a hellish nightmare unfolded while Laurie was babysitting Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace. Who knew she’d still be battling him over 40 years on?
Halloween II (1981) — 22 years old
Set immediately after Halloween, the action shifts to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. It’s there, during a fiery climax, that it’s revealed Laurie is Myers’ long-lost younger sister. However, blood apparently means nothing in the Myers household, because this simple fact urges Michael further to put an end to the remains of his bloodline and finish what he started before Laurie was taken away to a local hospital.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) — 23 years old
Here’s a surprise. Michael Myers — as a fictional character — isn’t the only notable cameo in this attempt to turn the franchise into a spooky anthology. Curtis actually makes an uncredited guest appearance in voice only as a curfew announcer and telephone operator, despite the film steering away from the familiar Myers narrative. Even with its lack of focus on Michael and Laurie’s budding rivalry, the third Halloween film is still considered a cult classic.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) — 39 years old
The franchise’s first reset to mark its 20th anniversary. The aptly named H20 earned its first unseasonal summer premiere and was the first installment to nod to meta-horror. It had been 20 years since Laurie discovered she was Michael Myers’ long-lost younger sister. Her change of identity and attempts to deal with her PTSD fail when Myers tracks her and her son down to California. This time, Laurie Strode isn’t a babysitter, but a mother and a guardian. Opinion is often split down the middle in regards to H20, but there’s absolutely no denying that the movie presents Laurie Strode as a total badass.
Halloween: Resurrection (2002) — 43 years old
Like its predecessor, a summer release and one of the worst sequels in horror history. More impressively, it convinced Curtis to return to the series one final time. After the jaw-dropping and head-separating end of H20, things haven’t gone well for Laurie. Now confined to a psychiatric facility, there’s one final confrontation with her unstoppable brother. Unfortunately, the movie ends with Laurie allowing herself to fall off a building to her death, but because of how bad this film actually is, we’ll just choose to ignore it.
Halloween (2018) — 59 years old
Fortunately, Resurrection was only the end of one Strode story. David Gordon Green convinced Curtis to return to the series and Universal Pictures opted to distribute the picture. In the film that put the franchise back on track, Strode is now a grandmother, but 40 years of terror has transformed Laurie from a bright babysitter to a paranoid recluse, ready for the inevitable return of the masked killer. Despite her fear, Laurie proves to be a crucial asset when it comes to the town of Haddonfield hoping to end Myers’ warpath for good.
Halloween Kills (2021) — 62 years old
Set immediately after Strode launched her final trap for The Boogeyman, it looks like Laurie’s carefully laid plots have failed, and Myers is back on his rampage. Halloween Kills is a film that lives up to its sensationalist title in its final act but leaves Curtis’s Strode injured and holed up in hospital for the duration. Nevertheless, for the moments that thrill-seeking viewers do see her, it’s obvious she’s planning an impactful attack.
Halloween Ends (2022) — 63 years old
The modern trilogy’s finale bumps forward four years. Despite the events of Halloween Kills, it looks like Strode may have finally come to terms with her past. She’s living with her granddaughter and writing her eventful memoirs until an accusation of murder leveled at a babysitter reawakens the past and concludes Strode and Myers’ story once and for all.
