NOW SHOWING

MOVIE: Halloween STARRING: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Nick Castle. RATING: MA15+

A NEW Halloween flick will invite moviegoers to ignore everything that happened in the nine movies that followed and consider the new movie as a direct sequel to the first, four decades later.

The reboot will return to the characters and spirit of the original - a classic that remains unbearably suspenseful and frightening, even to today’s viewers who are desensitised to violence and know horror movie tropes backwards.

The casting of Curtis in the original was a masterstroke, given she is the daughter of Janet Leigh, who was famously bumped off by a knife-wielding killer in Psycho‘s iconic shower scene.

When Curtis was sent the new script, she had no hesitation in returning to her role as an “OG scream queen”.

“This is me. Without this movie, I don’t have a career. This movie gave me my life,” Curtis said. “When I’m dead: ‘Halloween actress dies.’ Boom. My mother? ‘Psycho actress dies.’ It’s what happens.

“You are known for the thing that you are known for, whether you like it or not. In my case, I like it.”

Curtis, who proudly declares that she will turn 60 this year, considers her role as Laurie Strode as the “only acting job I’ve ever had”. Instead of being given the role of the cheerleader or the smart alec, director John Carpenter cast the then 19-year-old as the “repressed, brainiac, introspective, virgin, intellectual” character.

In the new movie, Laurie is still dealing with the Halloween massacre from 40 years earlier. And that trauma has strained the relationship with all those around her, including her daughter and 17-year-old granddaughter.