Halloween Kills premieres & Jamie Lee Curtis to be honored at Venice fest

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Director David Gordon Green's Halloween sequel (watch it HERE) received a wide theatrical release in October of 2018, but it had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival a month earlier. The follow-up Halloween Kills is scheduled to reach theatres on October 15th, but it will also be having its world premiere at a film festival one month before its wide release. It has been announced that the film will be screened on September 8th at the 78th Venice Film Festival, where star Jamie Lee Curtis will be awarded with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Curtis had this to say about receiving the Lifetime Achievement honor: 

I am incredibly humbled to be honored in this way by the Venice International Film Festival. It seems impossible to me that I’ve been in this industry long enough to be receiving ‘Lifetime Achievement’ recognition, and to have it happen now, with Halloween Kills, is particularly meaningful to me. Halloween — and my partnership with Laurie Strode — launched and sustained my career, and to have these films evolve into a new franchise that is beloved by audiences around the world was, and remains, a gift. Italian Cinema has always honored and heralded the genre that gave me my career, so I couldn’t be more proud and happy to accept this award from the Venice International Film Festival on behalf of Laurie and all the courageous heroines of the world who stand tall in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and refuse to yield."

The festival's director Alberto Barbera said, 

Jamie Lee Curtis belongs to that rarefied group of Hollywood actors who best reflect the qualities that are the very soul of the global film industry and its legacy. A direct descendant of America’s film aristocracy — she is the daughter of two unforgettable stars, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh — Jamie Lee Curtis is the natural embodiment of a star who knows how to play roles with versatility and amenability, all while infusing them with her peerless charisma and signature personality. All these qualities, combined with her work as an author of children’s books and her commitment to her charitable work have cemented her status as an indelible and enduring global artist. To date, her extraordinary four-decade career, which began with her dazzling debut in John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic, Halloween, encompasses more than forty feature films and reminds us that true talent, combined with intelligence, wit, endurance and sheer grit, are the hallmarks of this true and unforgettable star."

Set on the same night as 2018's Halloween, which ignored all of the previous Halloween movies except for the 1978 original (watch that one HERE), Halloween Kills is said to be about 

the creation of fear. It's one thing to be afraid of the Boogeyman, to have someone who might be in the closet, under the bed, creeping around your house… But we wanted to explore next was confusion, misinformation, and paranoia. What happens when fear goes viral? You can’t just stick your head under the covers any more."

Curtis's Laurie Strode is joined in the cast by Andi Matichak as Laurie's granddaughter Allyson, Judy Greer as Laurie's daughter Karen, Robert Longstreet as Lonnie Elam, Dylan Arnold as Allyson's boyfriend / Lonnie's son Cameron, Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, Anthony Michael Hall as Tommy Doyle, Nancy Stephens as Nurse Marion, Charles Cyphers as Leigh Brackett, Jibrail Nantambu as scene stealer Julian, child actress Victoria Paige Watkins as a character named Christy, and James Jude Courtney as Michael Myers. Original Michael Myers performer Nick Castle also has a one scene cameo.

David Gordon Green directed Halloween Kills from a screenplay he wrote with Danny McBride and Scott Teems. Green, McBride, and Curtis also serve as executive producers alongside Couper Samuelson and Carpenter. Jason Blum produced with Malek Akkad.