Editorials
Jamie Lee Curtis: The Scream Queen Through the Years
Is there a better Scream Queen than Jamie Lee Curtis? While that may be a discussion for a different article, my answer is no. The 57-year-old actress has had a storied career ever since her feature film debut in John Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece Halloween. Since it’s October, we thought we’d take a look at the actress and some of the milestones of her 38-year-old career.
1978 (Halloween)
In her feature film debut, the 19-year-old Curtis starred as virginal babysitter Laurie Strode, one of the targets of Michael Myers.
1980 (The Fog, Terror Train & Prom Night)
Curtis starred in three horror films in 1980: The Fog, Terror Train and Prom Night. These films pretty much cemented her status as a “Scream Queen.” You may not have known (or maybe you did, if you read Bloody-Disgusting regularly) that she also hosted Saturday Night Live on December 13th of that year.
1981 (Halloween II)
Otherwise known as the film where Jamie Lee Curtis wears that atrocious wig. Because Halloween II picks up right where the original left off, Laurie Strode had to have long hair. Curtis had already cut her hair short by the time film started production so she had to wear a wig for continuities sake. You almost wish they would have come up with a reason for the doctors to cut Laurie’s hair, but whatever.
1983 (Trading Places)
Curtis turned in a star-making turn in the Eddie Murphy/Dan Aykroyd comedy as Ophelia, the prostitute with a heart of gold. She won the British Academy award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film.
1984 (Perfect)
Jamie Lee Curtis co-starred with John Travolta in this critical and commercial flop about the rise of health clubs among single people in 1970s Los Angeles.
1988 (A Fish Called Wanda)
Curtis was nominated for a British Academy Award for her performance as con artist Wanda Gershwitz, but once again was snubbed at the American Academy Awards (shockingly, Curtis has never been nominated for an American Academy Award).
1991 (My Girl)
Full confession: My Girl was my introduction to Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis re-teamed with her Trading Places co-star Dan Aykroyd in this story about a young girl’s (Anna Chlumsky) maturation into adulthood.
1994 (Mother’s Boys)
Another one of Curtis’s flops (it only made about $800,000 domestically) saw her playing a psychotic mother who is willing to murder to get her husband and three sons back.
1994 (True Lies)
Did you know that if you Google image search “Jamie Lee Curtis True Lies” the first 50 or so pictures are all from the same scene? Guess which scene it is. Anyway, True Lies is awesome. Curtis is great in it. Schwarzenegger is in his element. Director James Cameron is at his most playful. The 141-minutes runtime may be a little excessive, but it’s hard not to have a blast with True Lies.
1998 (Halloween: H20)
Curtis returned for the seventh entry in the Halloween franchise to finish what she had started 20 years earlier. Directed by Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part II and Part III), H20 is a fun ride but far too short for being the big reunion between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. Still, you can tell Curtis is having a ball and her performance makes the film worth watching (John Ottman’s score isn’t half bad either).
1999 (Virus)
Curtis doesn’t think very highly of this adaptation of Chuck Pfarrer’s comic book, claiming that it is the worst film she ever made. Maybe skip this one if it ever hits Netflix, okay?
2000 (Drowning Mona)
Television director Nick Gomez directed this black comedy that is essentially a 30-minute sitcom episode stretched out to feature length. It eventually wears thin but the film, about a hateful and unpopular woman (Bette Midler) who dies under mysterious circumstances, does have its moments. Curtis gets to have fun playing a white trash waitress with a mullet, so there’s that.
2002 (Halloween: Resurrection)
Kill it! Kill it with fire! I jest, sort of. Halloween: Resurrection is not a good movie, and Curtis’s presence in it is sort of mind-boggling. Sure, her Laurie Strode gets killed in the first scene (something I like to pretend never happened), but one has to wonder why she agreed to be in this turd. I guess she wanted to make sure she couldn’t be brought back for any future sequels.
2003 (Freaky Friday)
Aka one of the best remakes ever made. I’m not even kidding. Freaky Friday is a genuinely good film and it’s actually the third adaptation of Mary Rodgers’s children’s novel. A pre-crazy Lohan is surprisingly good, but it is Curtis who steals the show playing a teenager trapped in her mother’s body (the moms always get to have more fun in the Freaky Friday films). Her skills as a comedienne have never been put to better use.
2008 (Beverly Hills Chihuahua)
So uh, this happened.
2010 (You Again)
Jamie Lee Curtis got to co-star with Sigourney Weaver, another famous Scream Queen, in Andy Fickman’s (Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical) You Again, which also stars Kristen Bell, Betty White and Odette Yustman. It’s fluff, but it’s harmless and entertaining fluff. You just can’t help but laugh when Weaver walks out in the same dress that Curtis is wearing. And at least everyone on screen seems to be having a good time.
2014 (Veronica Mars)
Curtis took a bit part in the movie sequel to the (absolutely amazing) Veronica Mars television series, playing a lawyer who was considering hiring Veronica (Kristen Bell). Of course, if you’ve seen the show or the movie, you know that Veronica was born to be a private investigator. It’s surprising to see Curtis in what is essentially a cameo appearance, but it is still a fun bit of casting.
2015 (Scream Queens)
Curtis’s latest role is that of Cathy Munsch, the manipulative Dean of Wallace University and now head doctor of the C.U.R.E. Institute Hospital. Curtis really gets to let loose in the Ryan Murphy series and it’s a treat to watch. Those expecting a serious slasher series were no doubt disappointed by Scream Queens, but those who were seeking a humorous Airplane!-style romp no doubt found a lot to enjoy about Scream Queens. I know I did!
“Elevated Horror.” Of all the combinations in the English language, that one is the most insufferable.
It represents almost a decade of scary movies that, for the most part, took themselves too seriously. Horror responds to the moment, so its “why so serious” lean makes sense as we scuttle through the “worst of times” equation of Charles Dickens’ famous opening lines. But there’s still an opening and a need for a lighter approach; one that not only has fun with its audience but takes the piss out of a genre that is seemingly letting its newfound “respectability” go to its head.
Wes Craven believed devotees see horror films to let out their fears one primal scream at a time. At their core, these movies are roller coasters; they bring us as close to the edge as possible before pulling us back into a safety net of reality. The need for a bigger and badder coaster increases during times when the size of that net decreases.
There’s a thrill that comes from imagining being in a foot race with a madman, or outthinking the hordes of zombies on the other side of the door, plus the scavenger humans coming behind them. There’s even a rush that comes from imagining how one might deal with possession to see good triumph over evil in the end. It’s all about building tension and releasing it through catharsis. That cathartic release usually sounds like screams followed by laughter, which signals relief. Genre heavy hitters over the past 10 years offered very little of that respite when the credits rolled. Films like Hereditary, The Witch, Talk to Me, and even Smile (pick one) keep that tension going after the screen fades to black.
Hereditary
As the genre became obsessed with creating trauma metaphors, that lack of release made sense. Anyone with even a small sample size of traumatic experiences knows those emotions don’t magically resolve themselves in an allotted run time. But how much trauma can one take? Especially when there’s a mess going on outside that few of us can escape from. Movies offer that off-ramp, no matter how short.
Everything can’t be, nor should it be, “elevated.” Audiences need thoughtful explorations of life’s ills via monsters as much as they need murdering masked maniacs with kitchen knives. And no, it doesn’t have to go any deeper than that. Sometimes, a knife is just a knife, and it’s still worth our time and respect. As weird as it sounds, that simplicity is comforting not in spite of the trauma but because of it.
The worst of times should manifest more than just anguish. People need to laugh just as much as they need to think seriously about this moment in time. Even the Scream franchise forgot the meta rock upon which it built its church when the latest foray sacrificed the subtle comedy for serious drama. Scary Movie returned at the perfect moment. It provides the necessary laughs, but it’s not a cure-all.
This isn’t a call for Scary Movie imitators but a return to a mainstream landscape where Killer Klowns from Outer Space sat with The Serpent and the Rainbow, nestled neatly with the latest Nightmare on Elm Street, which took nothing away from The Vanishing.
They Live
Even They Live, John Carpenter’s horror sci-fi satire sandwich, kept its tongue firmly in cheek while discussing serious ideas still relevant in 2026. Yes, a film about aliens taking over the world through subliminal messaging only visible through coded sunglasses is, in fact, a tad silly. Carpenter understood that mainstream horror can’t become so self-important that it never looks itself in the mirror and laughs at that inherent silliness.
The thing is, horror historically excels at poking fun at itself. Most of the Scream franchise, The Cabin in the Woods, or The Blackening show adoration without kowtowing. They recognize tropes and trappings but invert them for an audience already in on the joke, but one that also finds solace in said conventions. This keeps the genre on its toes; once something gets parodied, it’s usually time to evolve. That breeds new ideas and fresh filmmakers, which not only strengthen the genre’s collective voice but also amplify it.
Get Out, as “elevated” as some critics want us to believe it is, is a cathartic, populist scary movie that spoke to an untapped audience rather than speaking down to them. Backrooms is one of the biggest horror hits in years, partially because it’s fine-tuned for modern-day teenagers instead of their parents. Movies like these tell everyone the genre is open for business; open for innovation and, yeah, open for new ways in which people can lovingly poke fun at with a wink and a nudge.
Horror needs dread as much as it needs laughter.
Catharsis is just as important as tension, and pulpy populism has the same merit as more high-brow material. Respectability shouldn’t come at the expense of an experience akin to walking through a haunted house. At a time when joy seems in short supply, horror should look to its past to map out its future, and make things just a tad brighter for audiences.
Backrooms
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