Tribute: Jamie Lee Curtis

I had planed on doing this post like a month earlier but things didn't work out like I had hoped they would. Plus, at the time, I still couldn't decide who to give tribute to. There are so many women that I could give tribute to and at the same time my mind was coming up with a total blank on the subject. The hardest part for me was deciding on who should be given the title of Scream Queen. Like Final Girl has said, the title is thrown around a little to much now days. It doesn't have the same meaning as it once did. Once upon a time you had to be in several horror films before you became known as a scream queen. Now days if you are in just one movie that happens to be memorible, you are given the title right away. Not to long ago Spike TV had a horror movie awards show in which they had a scream queen award. While I agreed with the winner, Kate Beckinsale, I didn't agree with most of the women they had nominated for the award simply because they had only been in one horror movie. So for me, I wanted to find someone that had been in 3 or more horror movies, perferably even more than 3. Without further ado, my tribute to my first scream queen: Jamie Lee Curtis.

Jamie Lee Curtis was born on November 22, 1958 in Los Angeles, CA. Her parents are Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Both are actors as well. She has an older sister by the same parents, Kelly Curtis. She is currently married to Christopher Guest and they have two adopted children. Jamie got her first break in TV. She was able to be on the same show as her dad, Operation Petticoat. While on break from that show she landed the role of Laurie Strode. As probably all horror fans know, the was the lead roll for Halloween. From there she did a few more horror movies before landing a roll in Trading Places. From there she didn't do any more horror movies, her last being Halloween 2, until the year 1998 when she repraised her role of Laurie Strode for Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later.

The most odd thing I found about Jamie Lee Curtis is a rumor that seems to have been around for a long time now. I personally had never heard of it before now though. The rumor is that Jamie Lee Curtis was born both male and female. In otherwords, intersexual. That is why she was given the name Jamie Lee and also why she has chosen to adopt instead of having kids herself. The rumor has it that she had an operation as a baby to "make" her female. No one seems to know if this rumor is true and I guess Jamie Lee herself has refused to comment on it. I can care less, she looks all woman to me!

Jamie has been in a lot of movies that I have managed to catch over the years. I don't really have a favorite movie I can point at but I decided on Jamie because she has been in her share of horror movies. Mostly when she was just getting started in movies. I'm pretty sure I have watched all of the horror movies she has been in. According to A German magazine, she is about ready to retire from acting. I've always enjoyed her movies. The only movie I didn't like her role in would have been in The Fog. I felt in that one she was just there the biggest part of the time. No real fault of her own I don't think though. So there you have it, my first scream queen tribute. I hope you all liked it since I don't think I did a very good job with it! As before, a review will follow so keep reading if you will.

The movie I selected to review for this tribute would be my second favorite horror movie that Jamie Lee Curtis was in. That would be Prom Night. Prom Night starts off with a group of kids playing a variation of hide and seek. They hide from the person that is it and when the person is done counting they yell out that the killer is coming. A bit strange, I have to admit but then I used to play ghost in the graveyard so I can't say much. They are playing this game in an old run down building that is very big. A smaller group is walking by, we find out this group is family, two sisters and a brother. The middle sister wants to see what is going on so hangs back and eventually joins in on the game but the others don't seem to like this so take the time to scare her by telling her the killer is coming and chanting kill over and over again. They do what they inteded to do, scare the girl but by doing so, she falls to her death. The kids swear to never talk about what happened and they take off for home.

Six years later they are all in high school and getting ready for the biggest night of the year, prom night. Robin's (Tammy Bourne) family is still troubled by her death. It seems that it has hit her mom the worst. Kim (Jamie Lee Curtis) is the oldest sister and is unknowningly dating Nick (Casey Stevens), one of the kids that was there when her sister was killed. Out of the four, he seems to be the only one that acts troubled by what happened. At one point he even tries to tell Kim but is unable to do so. Wendy (Anne-Marie Martin) is the one that made everyone swear not to talk about what happened and up until we start to get to know them now, has been dating Nick. The last two would be Kelly (Mary Beth Rubens) and Jude (Joy Thompson). It starts with a man sitting by a list with each of their names on the list and he calls them. In a half whispered voice, he basicly tells them that he will be seeing them tonight.

The main problem with Prom Night is that it is so easy to know who is doing the killing. This would have been solved by a simple fix really. Instead of telling us the back story of what happened to Robin right away, they should have held back and told us towards the end of the movie. Because we are told right away what happens to Robin, it is easy to figure out who the killer is and why he is doing the killing. To make matters worse, when the killer is calling up his intended victims, they flash back to each of the kids so we know who is who. The writers try and throw us off the trail by added a side story or two that gives other motives but they are not that convincing to make you believe it is someone else.

That and the fact that there really is next to no gore to be found is what keeps Prom Night from being a true classic. The acting is where this one stands out. Jamie Lee Curtis gets her groove on durring a truely disco moment. The biggest surprise to me, even now, is Leslie Nielsen. I have always watched him in less than serious rolls. I don't remember him in a serious roll except for Airplane and even that wasn't a serious movie. He just acted somewhat serious to get the comedy across better. David Mucci also has a fairly big roll and is involved in one of the side plots. He is the bad boy of the school.

The best moment in Prom Night for me was when the first kill happened. We don't get to see the throat being cut open but we do get a close up of her face and the film slows down even though the killers voice is still in real time. I thought that was a pretty cool kill. So not everything is bad about Prom Night. I just thought it could have been so much better if they had told the story in a slightly different way. Since this took me three days to type out, ran out of time sunday and had big time headache yesterday and part of today, I hope it turned out alright. I'm hoping to start posting again at a more regular way, lets see if I am able to yes?

3 out of 5 Being killed by one swing of an axe = one wimpy killer