Like the John Wick of scream queens, it seems that Jamie Lee Curtis keeps getting pulled back in for one final job as Laurie Strode. In a recent interview, the Halloween actress offered a thorough breakdown of the various times she’s returned to this iconic role, making it clear that she’s long harbored a feeling of loyalty to the character who was first introduced in the classic 1978 original.
The first time Curtis reprised the role was in 1981’s Halloween II, which she saw as an opportunity to complete Laurie’s story while also serving as a fitting conclusion to the horror-heavy first act of the film star’s career.
The truth of the matter is I did Halloween 1 and 2 because Halloween 2 picked up exactly where Halloween 1 left off…I felt I owed it to the people who loved the original movie…I had already done Prom Night, Terror Train, kind of a bad thriller called Road Games in Australia, and then I did Halloween 2. I knew, if I knew anything, that it was time to say no more because if I hadn’t I would never have been able to do anything more and I knew that.
Next, Curtis discussed Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, which would see the long-awaited reunion between Laurie and the franchise’s star killer, Michael Myers. Though the 1998 film’s conclusion, in which Laurie seemingly kills and decapitates Michael, may have looked to serve as the “concrete conclusion” that the actress wanted for her character, we now know that the studio had other plans, which resulted in 2002’s infamous Halloween: Resurrection.
Of course what we learn, which by the way was not the original intention, was that it was not Michael, that it was an innocent man that Laurie had killed. So what I said to them was, if this is in fact how we are going to conclude the movie, without the audience knowing, then I have to come back for one more movie; for a very short moment to conclude Laurie’s story…So for me, I thought H20 was the correct thing to do at the time, I liked it, then I had to be in that other thing just to conclude the story and then I truly thought I would not return to this.
Enter David Gordon Green, whose script for the next Halloween was apparently good enough to bring her back once more.
I read it and I thought it was a very clever, modern way of referencing Halloween. I’m sure everyone is coming up with the word; it is not a reboot, it is a re-telling. It’s a very interesting take on the movie because it references Halloween 1 in every way it can, stylistically, characterologically, visually, emotionally; it follows very similar themes but it’s its own movie so it’s a very clever mash-up of the first movie in a re-telling, like a direct sequel. It’s fascinating. When you see what they’ve come up with you’ll be wowed, because it’s a very modern and yet very true movie.
So, that just about brings us up to the present day as we await the release of Blumhouse’s Halloween. Will it be the fitting conclusion to the Laurie Strode saga that Curtis and her fans crave and Resurrection failed to deliver? We’ll find out on October 19th.
