Jamie Lee Curtis Wears ‘Psycho’ Costume to ‘Halloween Kills’ Premiere in Tribute to Her Mother
Jamie Lee Curtis went meta for her appearance at last night’s premiere of Halloween Kills, dressing as Psycho’ s Marion Crane for the occasion. Wearing a pale blue dress and carrying a handbag and a bloody shower curtain for good measure, Curtis made quite an impression with her choice of outfit, which was almost too perfect to know where to begin. The idea behind the themed red carpet appearance was that as it is about a film series called Halloween, what better time to dress up in Halloween costumes? Also in attendance were David Gordon Green, dressed in a costume similar to that worn by The Usher who usually makes an appearance at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, Judy Greer was inspired by Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, Anthony Michael Hall decided that nothing is scarier than a man in a suit, and producer Jason Blum went all out with a Laurie Strode costume complete with blonde wig.
However, back to Jamie Lee Curtis’s choice of outfit and the many layers it contains in terms of personal and professional significance. Of course, the most obvious place to begin is that Marion Crane was played in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 movie Psycho by Curtis’ mother, Janet Leigh, and the costume is a clear sign of Curtis pulling in that family connect in tribute to the screen legend. The infamous shower scene of Psycho, which is still counted as one of the most disturbing scenes in horror history, was recreated by Curtis in 2015’s Scream Queens, so it is not the first time she has called back on her mother’s legacy.
Beyond that though, there are numerous other links to the both Janet Leigh and the character of Marion Crane when it comes to the Halloween franchise. Hitchcock’s Psycho, and the shower scene in particular, is often seen as the birth of the “slasher” movie, even though there are famously no actually stabs wounds or cuts seen in the film, but the combined musical score and the quick flashes of knife struck a chord with cinema goers. In many ways, John Carpenter’s original Halloween played the “slasher” in a similar way, with a building of tension taken over a slew of blood and gore, and again for the most part, there is no blood seen at all in the movie.
Another connection to the franchise comes from Halloween: H20, the movie that brought Jamie Lee Curtis back to the franchise on the 20th anniversary of the original and also delivered Janet Leigh’s final appearance on the big screen, playing Laurie Strode’s secretary at the school she worked. The film’s final scene with Leigh even called back her Psycho role, by having her drive away the same car that Marion Crane drove in the Hitchcock masterpiece.
Halloween has gone through numerous sequels, and is now on its second reboot, which this time discards pretty much everything other than 1978’s Halloween. In the 2018 movie, we were reintroduced to Curtis’ Laurie Strode, who has lived a long life planning for the day Michael Myers would return for her. With a daughter and granddaughter now in the mix, the three generations of Strode women are the formidable team attempting to bring Michael Myers down for good in Halloween Kills and next year’s finale Halloween Ends.
Halloween Kills goes on general release on Friday, and can also be seen streaming on Peacock. Previous movies in the Halloween franchise can be found across multiple other streaming platforms in the lead up to Halloween.
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