Jamie Lee Curtis on the Upcoming Halloween‘s #MeToo Moment
The actress discusses Laurie Strode reclaiming her voice.
Halloween, the latest chapter in the iconic horror franchise, hits theaters next month, and the more we hear about the film, the more excited we get.
We already know that the film retcons the previous sequels, choosing instead to follow the events of the first film. We’ve also seen in the trailer that the film is led by a badass, survivalist Laurie Strode, who teams up with her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak) to put an end to the unstoppable killer Michael Myers.
Curtis discussed the #MeToo Movement on the film, saying:
“Well, I do not believe that when David (Gordon Green) and Danny (McBride) and Jeff (Fradley) were writing this, they were looking at it as a way of incorporating the #MeToo movement into this retelling or revisiting of this story, I think it is the natural occurrence of a zeitgeist, of a change, of a shift in thought and action which comes from these moments of tremendous cultural change.”
“Clearly this movie will be another voice in that same chorus of women taking back their stories, saying, ‘We are not that story, we have arrived, and we will be the ones that write our own stories,’ and that only comes from the bravery of a few. This movie will be a part of that wave. I didn’t realize it until we were making it, and I realized what Laurie was doing, and that’s very powerful.”
It’s hard not to see the #MeToo Movement having an effect on the horror genre. The very concept of the “final girl” is one of a woman who is terrorized by a malevolent force, and her determination to survive. Curtis also discussed the legacy of trauma that Strode, like many survivors, still carries with her, describing present-day Laurie as “a walking example of PTSD”.
The 1998 sequel Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, while not a great film, delved into Laurie’s trauma, which she deals with by moving to California, assuming a new name, and developing a drinking problem. Throughout the film, Strode tries to convince her son (played by Josh Hartnett) that Myers is a real threat, but he keeps dismissing her claims until Myers shows up and starts picking off his classmates. Strode also tries to explain her past to her boyfriend, played by Adam Arkin, who also dismisses her fears…until he’s brutally murdered.
It will be interesting to see how the dynamic changes in the new film by giving Laurie Strode a daughter and a granddaughter. Trauma doesn’t just go away, it lingers in the DNA, and will no doubt have an effect on the rest of her family. We’ll have to wait until October to see how the final chapter of Laure Strode plays out.
(via Entertainment Weekly, image: Blumhouse)
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