‘Halloween’ to Premiere at Fantastic Fest

Fantastic Fest is getting a visit from horror royalty.

Jamie Lee Curtis will be onhand for the U.S. premiere of her upcoming Halloween, in which she reprises her role as Laurie Strode 40 years after the original John Carpenter film saw her fight off killer Michael Myers. Anticipation for the film is high after Curtis made a big impact at San Diego Comic-Con, where she had a memorable moment with a fan who tearfully credited her with saving his life years earlier.  Producers Malek Akkad, Jason Blum and Bill Block will also be at Fantastic Fest to debut the David Gordon Green-directed film.

The Austin, Texas-based festival added several more films to its lineup Wedesday, including the U.S. premiere of the psychological thriller Hold the Dark, from filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier and starring Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright. Organizers previously announced that the fest would also host the U.S. premiere for Overlord, the J.J. Abrams-produced World War II zombie movie.

“2018 is proving to be a remarkable year for genre cinema. It is a constant delight to be able to discover both seasoned directors and newcomers pushing the boundaries of what genre can mean, using cinematic language to bring incisive, intelligent commentary on the current state of the world and still find enough ingenious methods to terrify, thrill and twist,” Festival Creative Director Evrim Ersoy said in a statement.