The Disney movie that scared Jamie Lee Curtis

(Credits: Far Out / MUBI)

Sun Nov 17, 2024 3:45 PM, UK

Despite starting her career as one of the original Scream Queens after starring in the iconic film Halloween series directed by John Carpenter (it’s about trauma), Jamie Lee Curtis is not a fan of horror films. Her appearance in the franchise came as a surprise, with the actor being fired from her role on an ABC show and randomly given an afternoon off to audition for the film, completely unprepared for the impact it would later have on her career to have.

But even though the genre played such a big role in her later success, the actor doesn’t enjoy watching horror films herself, aside from one surprising Disney classic that she classifies as an undeniably scary movie.

When describing the Halloween franchise, Curtis emphasizes that the team didn’t set out to make anything groundbreaking, but joked about it being just “an exploitation slasher movie about killing babysitters.” The film was shot in twenty days and put together at the last minute Carpenter even composing the score for himself. The magic of filmmaking may seem like a bizarre twist of fate, as the film’s simplistic and homemade quality made it one of the most influential horror films of all time, with Carpenter being praised for its heart-pounding synth score that unnervingly repeats throughout the film.

After a movie like HalloweenYou might imagine that it would affect your perception of horror films as a whole, increasing your fear tolerance and making you a difficult critic to fear. However, when asked about the horror films Curtis likes, she described the 1992 Disney film: Aladdin.

Curtis explained further, saying, “I don’t like horror movies. I don’t say this in jest, even though it does get a laugh, I really don’t. There’s nothing I like about being scared. I am this person (puts hands in front of her face). I sing songs to myself when things are scary. I mean, damn Aladdin scared me. I’m not kidding! Do you know when Jafar becomes a dragon? With his red eyes and all? That stuff scared me.”

Many children become somewhat traumatized by the films that are considered ‘kid-friendly’. For example, I didn’t find the door order Monsters Inc ‘friendly’, and the whole idea of traveling in a warehouse with moving doors absolutely terrified me, and to this day I have a hard time watching it. There’s something quite ominous about it Aladdin But most importantly, with Jafar’s twisted beard and Jasmine trapped in an hourglass, the film has plenty of scenes to put you off, with the classics we loved as children often cementing themselves as strange, distant memories.

Curtis recently starred in the monumentally successful FX show The Bearfor which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She won her first Oscar in 2023 for the record-breaking A24 film Everything everywhere at once. She recently starred in the Crazy Friday sequel alongside Lindsay Lohan, reprising her role in the iconic 2000 film teen movie.

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