Jamie Lee Curtis onstage at Universal Pictures’ ‘Glass’ and ‘Halloween’ panels during Comic-Con International 2018 at San Diego Convention Center on July 20,2018.…
Jamie Lee Curtis onstage at Universal Pictures’ ‘Glass’ and ‘Halloween’ panels during Comic-Con International 2018 at San Diego Convention Center on July 20,2018.
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During Universal’s ” Halloween ” panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Jamie Lee Curtis left the stage to hug an attendee who explained why the first film saved his life. Universal brought two of their most anticipated releases to Hall H at this year’s Comic-Con: M. Night Shyamalan’s ” Glass ” and David Gordon Green’s “Halloween.”
This new Halloween comes forty years after John Carpenter’s film, and nine after Rob Zombie’s “Halloween II,” and reunites slasher Michael Myers with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in a story that completely ignores all sequels and remakes. While horror films are made mostly for entertainment reasons, there are a few tricks and lessons to be learned from the characters when it comes to getting into survival mode, which is what one fan took away from Carpenter’s film.
During the Q&A session at “Halloween’s” panel, an attendee told the crew and audience how Curtis’ portrayal saved his life. When a home invader with a knife cut his phone line and tried to break into his house, the man thought to himself “what would Jamie Lee do?”, fought his way out and ran into the street screaming for help. He added that, because of her, he is “a victor and not a victim”, before Curtis walked off stage to hug him.
In the first “Halloween” film back in 1978, after Laurie finds the corpses of her friends and Michael slashes her arm, she runs out into the street, screaming for help. She then returns to the Doyles’ house and manages to fight him long enough for Tommy and Lindsey to escape and scream for help, catching Dr. Loomis’ attention. Prior to the Q&A session, Curtis said that what made Michael Myers so frightening were his random acts of violence, adding that her character has carried the trauma and PTSD of a victim of a random attack – which resonates with the man’s story.
Michael’s “randomness” disappeared after “Halloween II” with the reveal of Michael being Laurie’s brother, giving him a motive. As previously mentioned, this new film ignores the sequels, meaning that Laurie and Michael are not siblings, treating that twist instead as a myth that originated after Michael’s killing spree. We’ll see how that randomness plays into this new film, and learn the reasons (if any) behind him chasing Laurie once more. However fantastic and even nonsensical some situations in horror films might be, they draw from reality to make the emotion as real as possible – in Michael Myers’ case, the randomness of his acts are what make him a believable threat. If viewers learn a trick from these films that can be put into practice in a life-or-death situation, it’s a major plus.
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