Jamie Lee Curtis became a horror icon after she took on Michael Myers in John Carpenter’s Halloween, but recently a nighttime walk in the fog reminded her of another Carpenter gem that she appeared in; 1980’s The Fog. The movie about ghostly mariners returning 100 years after being killed in a shipwreck wasn’t received too well on its release, but it subsequently gained a cult status that only grew when a 2005 remake was slated by both audiences and critics. Curtis took to her Instagram account to reminisce about working on the movie, which for a while saw her become tied to the horror genre. She wrote:

“Walking in the fog last night reminded me that I was in the movie THE FOG and that [John Carpenter] and Debra Hill wrote the part for me after the movie Halloween had come out and I couldn’t get any work except for a guest shot on Charlie’s Angels and The Love Boat. Feeling grateful at this very moment for their belief in me as from then on I have consistently found satisfying and creative work which is one the great privileges for a performer #fbf”

John Carpenter was pretty inexperienced at feature films when he gained great acclaim for Halloween, and even though the movie is hailed as a horror classic, the film itself was more a master class in suspense than horror. With The Fog, and The Thing two years later, Carpenter really gained himself a foothold in a genre he never really had an interest in. Having written the role of Elizabeth Solley in The Fog for Curtis, he also would create one of the genre’s most iconic scream queens.

Jamie Lee Curtis Has Never Forgotten Her Horror Roots

John Carpenter found himself being unexpectedly tied to the horror genre with the trilogy of movies that began with Halloween in 1978, and in casting an unknown Jamie Lee Curtis as his lead, she too found the genre one that would remain a huge part of her career for the next four decades. The character of Laurie Strode would see her forming a link to the genre that would span longer than she would have ever believed when first taking on the role. In all, by the time Halloween Ends is released next year, Curtis will have played the character seven times, in Carpenter’s Halloween and Halloween II, the first legacy reboot of the series H20 in 1998 and its direct sequel Halloween Resurrection, and the new trilogy which began with Halloween in 2018.

Although her career has seen her star in comedies such as A Fish Called Wanda, action movies like True Lies and family movies like Freaky Friday, the role of Laurie Strode is the one she is always remembered for and linked to, which is something she acknowledged and played along with when she took the lead in the satirical black comedy series Scream Queens in 2015. By returning to play Strode again in David Gordon Green’s continuation of the original Halloween, Curtis has ensured that her legacy as a horror icon will live on into another generation and that is one that would not have been possible without Carpenter’s faith to cast her in The Fog.