Jamie Lee Curtis Says Halloween Ends Taught Her the Importance of the “Final Girl”

Since Laurie Strode survived her first Halloween in 1978, the idea of “the final girl” is one that has become deeply engrained in horror and slasher movie culture. Prevalent enough to be intellectualized, analyzed, and parodied, the idea is one that means much more to Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis now that she has completed her journey as Laurie. Halloween Ends, which comes out later this year, is not the first time Curtis has played her “final scene” as Laurie, but it seems likely this one will stick. Following a trilogy that started 40 years after her first time out as the character, it’s difficult to imagine what would attract her to come back again.

Curtis’s first “last” was in 1981’s Halloween II, when the very long, very bad Halloween (those first two movies actually happened on the same night) was finally over for Laurie, and she could look forward to something resembling a normal life. Years later, Curtis would return to the franchise for Halloween: H20 in 1998, in which she would defeat Michael once and for all, freeing herself from the torment of her brother.

(The sibling connection was revealed in Halloween II, became a key part of the story for the better part of 35 years, and ultimately was discarded in 2018’s Halloween, after original director John Carpenter said he wished he had never done it to begin with.)

She would actually come back after H20, with a brief cameo in Halloween: Resurrection which Curtis has been said not to have liked. There, Laurie died, so technically that’s a third “goodbye” for the character, but since it was a cameo it hardly seems like it counts.

Now, with Halloween Ends, Curtis has finished a trilogy which totally reinvented Laurie again. With the sibling connection gone and all but the first two movies scrubbed from continuity, the 2018 Halloween established Laurie as the ultimate survivor, and a character just waiting for the day she could put an end to it all.

“I’ve just finished it, you know? Ijust three weeks ago finished shooting the last shot of Laurie Strode,” Curtis recently told Salon. “It was deeply emotional and cathartic.”

The movie is the final chapter for the ultimate final girl, and that apparently got Curtis thinking. She promised the horror-fan write of the Salon article that it’s a satisfying conclusion for Laurie.

“When you call her a final girl — I never really understood how important that name was until I made this last movie,” Curtis admitted. “And now I really understand it. And I think you’ll be very happy.”