Jamie Lee Curtis doesn't mince words on 'Halloween Ends' hype: It's 'going to f**k you up'

It seems none of us are prepared for what lies in store for us in this October's Halloween Ends. Take it from Jamie Lee Curtis herself, who, while appearing onstage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week, promised the third chapter in the rebooted slasher franchise is "going to f*** you up," wrote The Hollywood Reporter in its recap of the presentation from Universal Pictures.

Once again directed and co-written by David Gordon Green, the upcoming movie will break away from the first two installments by jumping four years into the future. Now that Karen Strode (Judy Greer) is dead and buried, the bloody job of taking care of the Michael Myers problem falls to the beleaguered Laurie Strode (Curtis) and her teenage granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak).

"It’s been the ride of my life to portray Laurie Strode,” Curtis said, going on to add that the beauty of the horror genre is that it "lets us confront what we can’t control."

Per CinemaBlend, the studio also showed off a never-before-seen clip involving a tense, kitchen-based kerfuffle between Laurie and Michael. Chatting with SYFY WIRE last fall, Gordon Green exclusively sounded off on whether Halloween Ends would really be the final nail in The Shape's literal and metaphorical coffin:

“I know that if I just continue it, I could go on forever. I’m trying to restrain myself and behave and wrap it up in a conclusive way. Because if I look at it as a personal opportunity for me to play with the characters and the world that John Carpenter and Debra Hill created, I wanna make it very contained and controllable. I want to be a curator of the property for a minute and I wanna do some quality control for lack of a better term and have some fun in that wheelhouse and then say goodnight and let the next generation and the next filmmaker and the next great creative idea take over with that mythology.” 

Appearing on an episode of Empire's Spoiler Special podcast (via IndieWire), the director — who shares screenplay credit with Danny McBride, Chris Bernier, and Paul Brad Logan — characterized the third installment as “a much more intimate movie.” He continued: “There’s not a lot of games in it, there’s not a lot of wittiness and retro joy,” Green said. “It’s kind of a coming-of-age film, and it’s a very different tone. And that’s what excited me about it, is to have the three chapters that I’ve been involved in be very different from each other. They are all there to honor Carpenter, but aren’t necessary just emulating him.”

Halloween Ends slashes its way onto the big screen Friday, Oct. 14. Thanks to a distribution deal struck with Peacock in late 2021, the threequel will be available to stream 45 days after its wide theatrical bow.