Jamie Lee Curtis says the new Halloween is a #MeToo movie

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In the new horror sequel Halloween (out Oct. 19), Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode once again battles the masked killer Michael Myers, this time with the help of her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak). Although director David Gordon Green began working on the script for the film with co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley before the rise of the #MeToo movement, Curtis believes the terror tale is very much a movie for our times.

“Well, I do not believe that when David and Danny and Jeff were writing this, they were looking at it as a way of incorporating the #MeToo movement into this retelling or revisiting of this story,” the actress tells EW. “I think it is the natural occurrence of a zeitgeist, of a change, of a shift in thought and action which comes from these moments of tremendous cultural change.

“Clearly this movie will be another voice in that same chorus of women taking back their stories, saying, ‘We are not that story, we have arrived, and we will be the ones that write our own stories,’ and that only comes from the bravery of a few,” Curtis adds. “This movie will be a part of that wave. I didn’t realize it until we were making it, and I realized what Laurie was doing, and that’s very powerful.”