I reviewed the movie on its opening weekend in October here at borg. The movie is a true triumph for fans of director John Carpenter. Of the ten (yep, ten) prior sequels to the 1978 original that set off an entire genre of movies, Halloween Killsis the most faithful to the original story. On the screen it was great fun seeing Jamie Lee Curtis reprise her starring role as 1970s survivor Laurie Strode, along with actors like Charles Cyphers back as the sheriff, Nancy Stevens as the doctor’s assistant, and Kyle Richards as the grown-up little girl. In Halloween Kills: The Official Movie Novelization, author Tim Waggoner digs into this great story, amplifying the characterization, and making everything that flashed quickly past the movie audience have deeper implications. He digs into the timeline of events in 1978 as the modern-day return is revealed moment by moment on that single day in 2018 that is spread over this final trilogy of movies. You’ll be hard pressed to read a better horror tale or movie novelization this year.
Halloween is going to be upon us before we know it. It was only three months ago that we got our first look at the new Halloween movie, and today Universal Pictures released a second trailer. I had a friend momentarily confuse Sigourney Weaver and Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis today, and I think there is a good reason for that: Curtis has been the Scream Queen for 40 years and this latest trailer seems to indicate this next movie may be what the franchise needs to give Curtis’s character full badass screen hero status.
In case you missed it, take a look here at borg.com at the prior trailers for the run of the Halloween films showing Strode’s appearances. Strode is one of those heroines audiences love to see return, as proven by her multiple appearances from a variety of writers and directors. Like Weaver’s Ellen Ripley and Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor, Curtis has created and re-created one of genredom’s enduring characters, even if that character is usually running from a crazed killer. Like fans hope for Hamilton’s return as Connor again next year in a new Terminator movie from James Cameron, in the latest trailer for the new Halloween, Curtis looks tougher and smarter, and more badass than even shown in the first trailer.
In the real world it is public knowledge that Curtis and Weaver are close friends. Can you imagine walking into a restaurant with these two women having a normal lunch sitting across from you? You’d either feel very safe or keep looking over your soldier for something bad to happen.
Get ready for Halloween with this great trailer with Curtis’s character–40 years in the making–taking charge:
The crazed killer in the William Shatner Captain Kirk mask returns. Again. Much has been said about John Carpenter’s 1978 horror flick Halloween. It launched the career of Jamie Lee Curtis and an entire genre of movies. Curtis is back for more in the eleventh film in the franchise, this Halloween’s holiday horror release, Halloween. Yes, that makes the third movie titled only Halloween. A plus for horror fans is Nick Castle returning as Michael Myers–the first time since 1978. Castle has had an interesting and varied career, directing films including The Last Starfighter, and writing films like Escape from New York. Even better, this sequel disregards everything but the original: Halloween 2 (1981), Halloween 3: Season of the Witch (1982) (the only film not about Michael Myers), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), Halloween (6): The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Halloween H20 (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), and the reboots Halloween (2007) and Halloween 2 (2009). So forget that stuff about Myers being Strode’s sister. Or Myers being dead. Or Strode being dead. It didn’t happen. And best of all, John Carpenter is back, this time as executive producer and composer (cue the creepy piano keys now).
Laurie Strode is one of those heroines audiences love to see return, as proven by her multiple appearances from a variety of writers and directors. Like Sigourney Weaver in the Alien franchise as Ellen Ripley and Linda Hamilton in the Terminator franchise as Sarah Connor, Jamie Lee Curtis has created and re-created one of genredom’s best loved cinematic heroines. Like fans hope for Hamilton returning as Connor again next year in a new Terminator movie from James Cameron, in the trailer for the new Halloween, Curtis looks only edgier, and, well, more badass than ever before.
This will be Curtis’s fifth time playing Laurie Strode. First was Curtis’s first appearance as Laurie Strode in the original film. Keep an eye out for film audience’s first look at Curtis as Laurie Strode, plus Carpenter movie staple Donald Pleasance (Escape from New York, Halloween 2, 4, and 5), a young P.J. Soles (Stripes, Law & Order), and an even younger Kyle Richards (The Watcher in the Woods, ER). Curtis was back one more time–we thought, in 1981 as Carpenter and Debra Hill tried to bank on the original’s success with Halloween 2, finding Strode stalked by Michael Myers in a hospital (with an appearance by The Last Starfighter’s Lance Guest). Twenty years later Curtis returned as Strode again, this time teaching at a private school, and protecting her son from the return of Michael. The 1998 sequel is pretty good for a horror sequel, and so is the trailer (keep an eye out for Curtis’s real-life Mom or horror icon Janet Leigh (Psycho, The Fog), Josh Hartnett, Adam Arkin, LL Cool J, and four-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams). And Curtis then came back another last time five years later in 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection, possibly the lowest point in the franchise (yep, that’s Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff in the trailer). Strode returned to confront… her brother (?) Michael and he didn’t seem to make it out of Halloween H20, and Laurie didn’t make it out of Halloween: Resurrection. Now we forget all that: Donald Pleasance’s psychiatrist character did shoot and wound Myers, and he’s been in jail since.
Check out clips of their last stands and film trailers featuring Curtis below–you can really see comparisons like those between Linda Hamilton’s transition from Sarah Connor in The Terminator and Terminator 2 comparing Curtis as Strode in Halloween (1978) versus Curtis as Strode in 2018. But first here is the trailer to the latest, director David Gordon Green’s Halloween:
