Jamie Lee Curtis's early post-"Halloween" horror films

Prom Night has heart and a nice look into the aftermath of a killing spree. There’s a melancholy running through the whole movie. Terror Train has great atmosphere and David Copperfield. Both movies have stuck with me over the years. Haven’t seen Road Games but I will check it out.

To be honest, they're all good. And they get better with age.

Personally I love The Fog. So atmospheric. Great cinematography, great score, great scares. Weirdly, though, Curtis has a very underwritten role in this. She doesn't have much to do. Adrienne Barbeau gets the meaty role.

Terror Train is also very strong. Also atmospheric.

Prom Night is good, too.

But I feel Jamie's role in Halloween was much more substantial than any of her follow-ups including Halloween II (where her character is asleep for half the movie!).

My only beef with Prom Night is the lack of Leslie Nielsen's character at the end. The big reveal should have included his character. It was obvious they ran out of $$ to pay Nielsen or the screenwriter just forgot.

The ending though is good, though tragic as has been mentioned.

Interesting how Eddie Benton then became Anne Marie Martin and of course, Mrs. Michael Crichton. Wendy's chase scene is one of horror's best sequences, IMO. I Know What You Did Last Summer was obviously inspired by it.

Prom Night has some genuinely scary sequences, especially the opener with the children.

Terror Train has some awful pacing and gaps in logic and continuity, but it also boasts peak Hart Bochner and, as stated in the OP, a whopper of a reveal.

Both were quite frightening to me as an adolescent. Not sure how I’d experience them as an an Eldergay, though.

I love Terror Train. It has one of the best atmospheres of all the 80s slasher flicks. There's something about the sound of a train that I find especially comforting and relaxing, even with a killer onboard.

I like The Fog even better than Halloween. John Carpenter was a master at creating a warm atmosphere onscreen and The Fog represents that better than any of his other films. I can curl up on the sofa with this movie and feel like I'm back in high school again. My favorite scenes are of Adrienne Barbeau in the lighthouse looking out over the ocean with her dreamy voice on the radio. I've actually visualized that scene whenever I have to calm myself down, like during a medical procedure. It puts me in a dream state.

Loath all of them Terror Train, Prom Night & The Fog. For me her career picked up with the likes of Trading Places, Perfect (so shoot me I like the film), A Fish Called Wanda & True Lies.

The iconic Terror Train ending

[Quote] Perfect (so shoot me I like the film)

I can understand why. I like it too.

My ex-husband used to love watching The Fog, he said the only way the movie could be better is if the actors did all their scenes with their shirts off! LOL!!

R9 That clip is hilarious! And that's the OLDEST group of high schoolers I've ever seen. Was this prom night for students who were held back for five years?

Terror Train was one of my favorites. Plus, Vanity was in it before she was Vanity!

Yeah, they do look old for teenagers in Prom Night.

Like Andrea Zuckerman-old.

She's not a very good actress, every performance is so similar that you can't even identify what film it's from.

I think Jamie Lee is a great actress, and it was evident even back when she first started. There is a moment at the end of "Prom Night," after she's struck her the killer in the head with an axe, when she looks into his eyes and realizes it is actually her brother. The camera zooms in on her face, and she evokes this raw, realistic expression of disbelief and devastation. The nonverbal acting she did in that moment was exceptional.

I agree, Jamie is terrific. She's always great, even if the film is shit.

The dance off scene in Prom Night is truly terrifying.

Eddie Benton is also in Halloween II. She plays the friend of the nurse who's running late.

I haven't seen Road Games but I love all the others, particularly The Fog. The scenery is beautiful and I love movies where the town is a character too.

[quote]Personally I love The Fog. So atmospheric. Great cinematography, great score, great scares. Weirdly, though, Curtis has a very underwritten role in this. She doesn't have much to do. Adrienne Barbeau gets the meaty role.

You beat me to it - I also love The Fog but I always forget Jamie Lee Curtis is even in it. Adrienne Barbeau's sultry voice could turn me straight.

It seems like few people have seen Road Games. I'd recommend it if you like '70s-'80s thrillers. It's a fun movie, though rather ridiculous--Stacey Keach plays an American truck driver in Australia (for some reason?) who happens to pick up another American, a hitchhiker (Jamie Lee) in the outback. She ends up being kidnapped by a serial killer during the trip. I know Scream Factory is putting it out on Blu-ray next month. I may have to pick that up.

Road Games pops up frequently on the free Movies! channel (it's up near all the other mesothelioma channels on my cable system: Buzzr, Antenna TV, Cozi, etc.)

Road Games is fantastic. It's got a slasher movie meets Mad Max kind of vibe to it. The direction and score is very similar to Mad Max.

Terror train was my favorite.

I tried to mold in her into a respectable actress but I really should've realized what I was getting when i hooked up with her.

Oh well, she does make an excellent beard. At least I have that.

Jamie talks about them all here.

She always comes across as standoffish in interviews.

R26 She seems like a nice person but in interviews she comes across has someone who has trouble regulating her emotions. One minute she's calm and intelligent and the next she is really hyper. I watched her on the Kevin Pollack Show and other interviews and she definitely has a mood swing thing going on.

She avoided talking about her early horror films for a long time IIRC, R26. I don't know why exactly—maybe she just didn't want to have that title pinned on her. I know she did a single horror convention appearance a few years ago, but she otherwise has distanced herself from that whole scene. She famously refused to do them (not that I really blame her; she doesn't need the money). Weirdly enough, she's come full circle and is back to starring in the new "Halloween" reboot series.

[quote] She seems like a nice person but in interviews she comes across has someone who has trouble regulating her emotions.

Love Jamie, but she's always been a little weird, and she has an aggressive personality. Both of her parents were the same way. I saw her on an old rerun of Match Game around the time that Halloween came out, and she was a lot to take even back then.

I would describe her energy as "masculine."

"I would describe her energy as 'masculine'. "

Definitely!

In R25's interview, I'm surprised that she doesn't like The Fog, because it's one of my favorite films. She explains that there was a lot of emotional turmoil going on behind the scenes and maybe that's coloring her opinion of it.

I feel like it in that interview that she wants to get the point across that she and her mother weren't all that close.

"The Fog" has some of the best scenery and photography of any horror film, a chilling, understated score, a truly horrific menace and an excellent cast overall. It's also somehow realistic in that the different characters remain isolated until the very end and even then Barbeau is still int he lighthouse. It's chilling to realize that when Barbeau's character utters her final warning she still doesn't know if her own child survived. The final jump scare is a disappointment, and was evidently something the studio insisted on in addition to some of the unnecessary gore shots (thankfully kept to a minimum). But I'd call it one of the best of its genre.

Yeah, r 32, The Fog gets better with age. Good points - I didn't even realize that Barbeau's character doesn't know the fate of her son. (BTW, Barbeau is great in this and as stated above, her sultry voice is well used here).

The score is fantastic.

Jamie Lee's part in The Fog was an afterthought shoehorned in and a gift from John and Debra because she wasn't getting any roles after Halloween (from US productions).

[R34] it's also a directorial in-joke - Jamie's character says "bad luck seems to follow me around." There's a blink-and-you'l-miss-it gag in Halloween III where she plays the creepy recording of the town curfew. When Jamie Lee Curtis tells me to stay indoors on Halloween, I listen.

Prom Night is my favorite non-Halloween JLC

You have to take Jamie's opinion of The Fog with a grain of salt, as she states in the interview that the Carpenter/Hill/Barbeau drama going on behind the scenes was a big distraction for her. She also didn't seem to like her mother being in the movie.

The fact that she prefers Halloween 2 over The Fog is laughable. The Fog is a far better movie. There's no comparison.

This guy went to the locations used in The Fog. It's interesting to see how it all looks today. I've always wanted to visit the lighthouse where Adrienne Barbeau had her radio station. It seems like a magical place.

I've always had a soft spot for the original "Prom Prom." I love the opening, the creepy phone calls, the disco, Wendy's chase and the ending (fight scene on the disco floor with disco music blaring. Then the killer reveal).

I'm partial to Prom Night. Lots of eye candy - the brother, Nick, Nick's dad, Leslie Nielsen.

[Quote] She seems like a nice person but in interviews she comes across has someone who has trouble regulating her emotions. One minute she's calm and intelligent and the next she is really hyper.

Why would she like "The Fog"? She's an actress and Adrienne Barbeau had the leading role.

And the bigger tits.