Jamie Lee Curtis Is The Spitting Image Of Mom Janet Leigh In Iconic Photo Recreation

In the early days of her acting career, during the late 1970s and early '80s, Jamie Lee Curtis became synonymous with slasher films — from "Prom Night" to "Terror Train" and of course, "Halloween." But while Jamie Lee Curtis' beloved horror movie roles earned her the title of "Scream Queen," that moniker was also kind of an inherited one. In 1960, Janet Leigh appeared in "Psycho," not only one of the most iconic horror films of all time, but in what is often considered to be the single most iconic scene in the history of the genre. It was just 18 years before Curtis first faced off against masked serial killer Michael Myers, as teenage babysitter Laurie Strode. Long after both actors had secured their respective legacies, Curtis recreated that famous moment, not only paying tribute to it, but also showing off just how similar Jamie Lee Curtis and her famous mother actually look. 

Leigh played Marion Crane in legendary director Alfred Hitchcock's seminal psychological horror film. "Psycho's" most culturally influential moment comes when Marion — spoiler alert for a movie that's old enough to collect social security — is stabbed to death while taking a shower. In 2015, Curtis not only recreated her mother's most famous scene, for Ryan Murphy's cult hit horror-comedy series "Scream Queens," but she also posted a black-and-white still version of it on Instagram. In the photo, Curtis actually holds up a separate still of Leigh from "Psycho" for ease of comparison. As one impressed user remarked, when Curtis' spot-on recreation was reposted to X, in August 2026, "Her mom is a little more full in the cheeks, but other than that they look identical in this pic."

Notably, Jamie Lee Curtis' 2015 recreation of Janet Leigh's iconic "Psycho" scene wasn't the first time the "Halloween" star paid tribute to her mother's legendary horror legacy. In their careers, Curtis and Leigh have collaborated onscreen twice, first in 1980, when they both starred in director John Carpenter's horror movie "The Fog." Just under two decades later, Curtis spearheaded production on "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later," which more or less became the template for modern legacy sequels. "H20" served as a direct sequel to Carpenter's original "Halloween," from 1978, and its 1981 sequel, ignoring the four additional sequels that had come out in the interim. 

The horror icon not only reprised her role as Laurie Strode for the 1998 anniversary film, securing a much bigger payday than Jamie Lee Curtis' payout for the original "Halloween" movie in the process, but she also acted alongside her mother for the second and final time. Leigh made a cameo in "Halloween H20" as a character named Norma Watson — an obvious reference to Norma Bates, the mother of "Psycho" main character Norman Bates. Even better, Norma Watson drives a car identical to the one Marion Crane drove in "Psycho" 38 years prior. 

In a behind-the-scenes interview for the "Halloween H20" DVD, Leigh — who knows a thing or two about falling victim to a knife-wielding psycho in a horror movie — praised her daughter's approach to continuing Laurie Strode's story. "Jamie told me that she had the idea about, you know, 'What happens to a victim after this horrible experience?' You always, in a movie, you see the experience [...] but you never then follow through," the horror icon pointed out (via YouTube).