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Halloween is just around the corner, but unfortunately, we’re going to have to sit this one out without a new installment in Blumhouse’s recently revived Halloween franchise. The good news is that the studio already has two more on the way, Halloween Kills in October 2020 and Halloween Ends in October 2021. With the former rolling into production, we had the chance to catch up with Jamie Lee Curtis at the Saturn Awards, where the Halloween star took home Best Actress for her return as Laurie Strode in last year’s sequel.

Curtis discussed why she was so excited to return as the iconic horror character — not because she got to kick ass, but because she got to investigate Laurie’s trauma — and how that commitment to character is continuing in the upcoming sequels.

Curtis explained,

“The ass-kicking part is the fan-favorite part, but from my standpoint, I didn’t go into it because I got to kick Michael’s bottom. I was particularly drawn because it was a movie about trauma. We have horror movies that are horrific and we have these horrific events take place, but we leave the movie theater and then we complain that the dishwasher doesn’t work. The trauma that occurs for these character for forty years, I felt was very important that David understood that and was really giving Laurie great honor to acknowledge that her experience of her life was very challenged. And then kick his ass. And then you. realize that it, in fact, was all like a spider’s web, but in order to go to the spider’s web, you also had to see the fragile person. And I was grateful that that was the angel. I think that if from the opening section I was kicking butt, it wouldn’t have had the emotional reaction that people actually had.”

With the upcoming sequels, Halloween sees the return of some fan-favorite characters, with Kyle Richards returning as Lindsey Wallace and Anthony Michael Hall stepping in to play Tommy Doyle. And Curtis says they’re returning for good reason; Halloween Kills is all about further digging into the trauma of the first film.

“What I love that David and Danny and company did is they connected the dots for forty years, now they’re going back to really unpack the first movie, bringing back all those characters whose lives were affected by what happened in 1978.”

As for the finale, Halloween Kills Curtis promises a deeper examination of violence as a cultural phenomenon, that she calls “sensational”.

And then the last movie is the sort of cultural phenomenon of violence, that’s what the third movie ultimately is, a very powerful examination of violence. It comes at it from a slightly different way. You’ll like it…. If you believe in me at all, I promise you what David Gordon Green has come up with as a way to complete this trilogy is sensational.

Click here for all our previous Halloween coverage and look for more Saturn Award interviews soon.