Jamie Lee Curtis: Her 10 Best Performances

Curtis' breakthrough role is still one of her very best.

Her turn as Laurie Strode is often remembered for being the definitive 'final girl' in classic horror cinema, which it certainly is, but its also so much more than that.

The script by John Carpenter and Debra Hill elevates this character beyond simply being the straight-man to Annie and Lynda's more sexed-up antics, with Hill's dialogue giving Laurie an identity all her own. Yes, she's a book-worm, but she also longs to be more than that. She wants to go out with Ben Tramer, no matter how much it scares her. She's afraid of pushing her more adventurously-minded friends away and wants to spend quality time with them, so we get sequences like her smoking weed with Annie in the car.

All of this is already innovative on the page, but Jamie Lee Curtis' performance brings Laurie to life. In a role that often calls for her to be both the scared child (when she's seeing and later running from the Boogieman) and the soothing mother (babysitting Tommy and Lindsey and later guiding them to safety with her "do as I say" commands), Curtis excels in both. She brings a gravitas and believability to the proceedings that make the film the iconic masterwork it is.

The reason that final sequence in the bedroom still feels so visceral all these years later is thanks to Curtis' impeccable performance.