Why Jamie Lee Curtis has never seen any of her Halloween movies
Since first starring in the classic slasher film Halloween in 1978, actor Jamie Lee Curtis has built a large portion of her career on the business of thrills and shrills. So, one could make the assumption that horror is Curtis’ bread and butter. But there’s a reason why Jamie Lee Curtis has never seen any of her Halloween movies.
She hates horror.
“I’m not a fan of the genre at all,” Curtis said in an interview.
For those who have never seen the films, Halloween centers around mental patient, Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his babysitting teenage sister on Halloween night when he was six years old. Fifteen years later, he escapes and returns to his hometown, where he stalks a babysitter Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends while Michael’s psychiatrist also tries to track him down.
The films that follow all feature Michael’s repeated return to his murderous ways and coming face-to-face with his long-time nemesis Laurie, who aims to put a stop to the unending torment and madness she’s endured for years being hunted by Michael.
Jamie Lee Curtis confirmed with NME that she had not in fact seen any of her Halloween movies, despite the critically acclaimed franchise being ranked first at the United States box office when compared to other American horror film franchises.
“I’m not [a] fan of the movies,” Curtis told NME. “I’ve never seen any of them. None of them!”
From The Fog and Prom Night to Terror Train, Roadgames and eight films from the rest of the Halloween franchise, which consists of thirteen films total over the last 44 years, Curtis is perhaps most widely known for her roles in these terrifying talkies.
Jamie Lee Curtis has no intention of watching her Halloween movies.
But despite her numerous Fangoria Chainsaw Awards and being raised by Janet Leigh–the star of one of cinema’s greatest horror flicks, Psycho–the taste for darkness never appealed to Curtis. At least, not off camera.
“Oh, you can get a thrill out of all the darkness, darling,” said Curtis in an interview with Collider. “Mommy doesn’t go near the darkness.”
But why? Curtis has expressed deep sadness as a response to her time with the Halloween story coming to a close with this year’s latest and final installment, Halloween Ends. With such a strong attachment to the films, why not watch any of them?
“I don’t want to be scared,” said Curtis in a recent interview with Collider. “I don’t enjoy it. There’s nothing about it I enjoy. Nothing…I’m not a horror lover. At all. I’m a horror hater. I hate it.”
She adds, “I’m not lying. Freaky Friday scared me. I mean, I don’t like any of it…I’ve never seen the movie and I never will see the movie.”
But, in the same interview, Curtis acknowledged the irony in her distaste of the horror movie genre.
“And yet, it has given me my entire life,” she continues. “And so I have great reverence for it, appreciation for the fans, appreciation for people who lean into it and dissect it and live it and chew it and eat it and digest it and love it and metabolize it into their lives. And I don’t. And so it’s been a complicated dance for me.”
For Jamie Lee Curtis, the biggest appeal for being a part of the Halloween movies was the glimmer of hope woven into the fabric of the fearsome narrative. And hope was a big part of the last scene of Halloween Ends, concluding on Laurie Strode’s porch on November 1st, at 8:30 in the morning.
“You have to see that innocence prevails, that peace prevails and that there’s a chance for Laurie Strode,” said Curtis to Collider. “Because, if not, what’s the point?”
Will you be watching any of the Halloween movies this Halloween? Which ones are your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!