See an exclusive image of Michael Myers in the new 'Halloween'

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Jamie Lee Curtis reprised her iconic Halloween role of Laurie Strode in several of the films that followed John Carpenter’s original 1978 slasher classic. But the actress couldn’t be happier that the latest sequel — also called Halloween and out Oct. 19 — acts as though the events of those movies never happened.

“What I loved is that it surgically excises all of that dead tissue,” Curtis says of the script for the new Halloween, which was written by Danny McBride, Jeff Fradley, and the film’s director, David Gordon Green. “This is growing from just that original movie, 40 years later. There may be people who love the other movies, great — [they have] zero relevance to this story.”

Green’s Halloween doesn’t entirely ignore the other sequels.

“This film isn’t one to narratively recognize any of the films other than the original Halloween,” says the director. “But we very much enjoy the other films and there’s a lot of very subtle shout-outs to a number of things that I think the big fans — the people that know the films scientifically — will get a kick out of, hopefully.”

In the film, we discover that masked killer Michael Myers is about to be transferred from a psychiatric institution to a maximum-security prison. Can we assume there is a hiccup en route? “Well, s— hits the fan in one way or another,” teases Green.

Halloween costars Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, and Toby Huss, among others.

Watch the trailer for the new Halloween above and see an exclusive image of Michael Myers in the film below.