Female view in ‘Halloween’ freshens, fortifies new film

In 1978, teenage babysitter Laurie Strode survived a showdown with masked serial killer Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” a critically acclaimed and commercially successful slasher flick that would spawn 11 films and jump-start the career of young actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

Forty years later, Strode and Myers face off again in Universal’s “Halloween” revival. The film, directed by veteran indie filmmaker David Gordon Green, grossed a massive $76.2 million and shattered several boxoffice records when it opened last weekend.

It did so by ignoring the 10 sequels and reboots released since the original “Halloween.”

“The reason why (they’ve) taken away all the other history is to tell a clean story between one point and another,” said Curtis, who reprised her role for three previous “Halloween” sequels. “You can’t do that if you have to touch base on every weird plot twist of 40 years.”

In the new film, Strode is mentally ABOVE: Jamie Lee Curtis — shown here as Laurie Strode, protecting daughter Karen (Judy Greer) — on her newest film: “A family story is the way to tell the ‘Halloween’ story because of the trauma that gets passed from one family member to the next.” and emotionally scarred by the events of her adolescence. Traumatized and convinced that Myers will return to finish the job, Strode transforms her secluded home in the woods into a heavily fortified estate.

The lingering trauma has made it impossible for her to maintain healthy relationships, exemplified by two failed marriages and an estranged relationship with daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak).

“A family story is the way to tell the ‘Halloween’ story because of the trauma that gets passed from one family member to the next,” Curtis said. “What happens to someone when you attack them and they survive is that the rest of their life is branded by that violence.”

Green thinks the relatability of the characters and their relationships elevate the film above traditional slashers.

“There’s emotional substance that we can relate to,” he told The Times by phone shortly before opening day. “It’s what drew me to Carpenter’s film in the first place.”

Carpenter’s film was shot largely from Myers’ point of view, but the new film employs the female perspective, which is rarely explored in slasher movies.

“The (original) movie is told through the male gaze because it was (Myers’) gaze and his obsession that the movie was focused on,” Curtis said. “This movie is ... a woman’s obsession.”

The decision makes logistical sense but also modernizes an oftenmisogynistic genre for the #MeToo era. At this time, Greer said, the tack just seems more interesting.

“The idea of a woman facing her traumas and her fears and becoming a badass, and then seeing two generations of women following in her footsteps, I think it’s what the fans would want,” she said.

Green saw the female perspective as an easy choice, but he needed guidance.

“I could never rid myself of the male gaze, unfortunately,” he said.

His solution was to cast “powerhouses” in the lead roles and engage them in the creative conversations.

The decision to unite three generations of Strode women in one narrative pays its biggest dividends in the film’s climax — a thrilling and cathartic sequence that was both poignant and physically taxing for all involved.

“I think there’s a hope that we can put all of this behind us,” Matichak said, “and that these three women can try to just rebuild their lives in a way that is a little bit healthier than how it went down for Laurie for the last 40 years.”