Happy Birthday Ms. Curtis

The Scream Queen turns 50 today - the same age as your humble host of this little blog ...



I still recall that cold December afternoon back in 1979 when I sauntered into a matinee of a little independent horror film called, Halloween, and was instantly mesmerized by the movie's forlorn heroine, Laurie Strode. All floppy hair and knee socks; smarter than her peers, sort of gawky and yet graceful at the same time, and full of silent longing ... Remember that scene while she's walking down the street singing softly, "I wish I had you all to myself"? Yeah, I totally got that.

It might have been about a year later, when I saw The Fog. Granted, Jamie Lee's character, Elizabeth, was not the heroine, but my buddy (who I saw the film with) and I joked that when she takes a ride with the truck driver played by Tom Atkins and talks about her string of bad luck, she should have said something about that lousy baby sitting gig she had a few years back ... No longer, virginal, Jamie Lee's Elizabeth now gets to have sex, and still survive the horrors that befall the seaside community of Antonio Bay.In Prom Night, Jamie Lee played the disco dancing Final Girl, Kim. Sadly, even though I am a gay man, I could not relate as I suffer from terminal white man's syndrome aka: two left feet. Still it was fun to watch Jamie Lee in this goofy thriller. All I remember from Terror Train was that for some strange reason, I thought that David Copperfield was kind of hot.
Bad wig aside, it was great to see Jamie Lee return to Haddonfield for Halloween II. What a shame that the movie, ultimately, was a piece of crap ... her brother? Oh please, then why did they use Mr. Sandman in the soundtrack? Be that as it may, I did enjoy seeing Laurie again, and when she finally came out of her coma-like-phase, she did kick some ass. Everybody knows what happened next: she went legit, she showed her tits ... seriously, Jamie Lee's acting and her Hollywood pedigree paid off ... Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, Blue Steel, True Lies ... and finally, another return to the story that started it all with Halloween H2O; Laurie Strode living as Keri Tate - a woman dealing with post traumatic stress and dealing with it by drinking, taking a lot of prescription drugs and being a control freak. Man, I so loved her in this movie. Especially when she finally faces her fear, grabs that ax and stalks purposefully into the night screaming, "MICHAEL!" Once more, I totally got that.

Yeah, there was that stumble with Halloween: Resurrection, but let's pretend that never happened.

Happy Birthday Ms. Curtis , and many happy returns of the day. Thanks for the screams.