Halloween is a classic horror property and also an R-rated horror franchise. With that in mind, you’d think most parents would keep their kids away from Michael Myers and co., but that’s not always so. Franchise lead and longtime scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis has some blunt thoughts about parents allowing kids to watch Halloween, however.
In fact, during a recent appearance on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast in support of Knives Out, Jamie Lee Curtis got into the nitty gritty or why it really rankles her when she finds out kids have been able to see any of the Halloween franchise movies before they are really the suitable age for it.
I’m not demeaning children or saying they can’t handle (violence), but it’s the truth… When I go out to talk about Halloween, even when I was doing book tours for books for children, I would have people come… They will stand there with their five-year-old kid, and say to me, ‘My Bobby loves Halloween, Don’t you Bobby?’… and I look at them and I have the meanest, meanest JLC are-you-out-of-your-fucking-mind look of you are the worst human being on the planet that you would show your child Halloween. I have kind of a strong opinion, as you can tell, about when is correct and incorrect to expose a child to that stuff.
Well, no one will ever accuse Jamie Lee Curtis of not speaking her truth. When the topic of Halloween came up on ReelBlend, the actress spoke out about how “there are things that are too sophisticated for children,” bringing up times when she has been exposed to fans at book signing events and in other moments and how oftentimes parents of young children would reveal their young child’s fandom from a young age.
It’s almost as if the absolute disconnect between the parents’ understanding of how Jamie Lee Curtis might feel about kids watching Halloween and how she herself feels puts her in her own little personal hell in those moments. You can hear her full thoughts on parents letting young kids watch violent, R-rated films on ReelBlend:
She's not the only one trying to keep little kids away from R-rated movies, as some theaters have even enacted policies on this very topic. She does explain that as a parent and someone who does feel strongly about these topics, she’s generally the first voice in the room paying attention to the marketing and the branding for the film. According to Jamie Lee Curtis, this also came up with Knives Out.
Even this movie, Knives Out, it’s a great movie, it’s great for Thanksgiving family weekend. But we were doing a thing yesterday and we said something about “families” and I was the one who went, ‘Umm, it’s not a family movie.’ Then we had the discussion of how young. And Michael Shannon said, brilliant, ‘Double digits.’
While Knives Out is PG-13, there is murder in it and it’s certainly not the same kind of movie as Frozen II, which is comfortable for most kids of most ages. Halloween as an R-rated property with numerous movies under its umbrella (and another, Halloween Kills, on the way), some of which are scarier or more violent than others, but none of which are really meant for young kids. I'm assuming if Jamie Lee Curtis thinks the double digits rule applies with this property as well she's more in the "high double digits" camp. Luckily, your kids needn't wait quite so long to age into seeing Knives Out.
Regardless, it's clear that this is an issue that is near and dear to Jamie Lee Curtis' heart, likely because she is a mother herself and she's spent a long time in the the industry being confronted by fans that let their kids do things she would never dream of in a million years. Now's probably not the best time for me to say Halloween was the very first R-rated horror movie I ever saw, but I guess given I was in late middle school, maybe my girl JLC will give my mom a pass.
