♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, the bodies of lake mead. decades-old mysteries unlocked in the withering waters. >> we didn't hear anything or see him any more. >> plus the unsavory elements. mob ties and other secrets. >> if we ever drained lake mead, we are going to find the criminal element of las vegas in this lake. >> nobody crawls into a barrel and shoots themselves in the head. plus halloween ends. >> tonight i will kill him. >> jamie lee curtis says good-bye to the role that made her a scream queen. >> i've sent lori strodoff with a big farewell party. >> inside the studio that is

reinvent is horror. >> i look at horror as independent movies with scares. >> plus "the exorcist." reimagined with a surprise star. >> i don't know if you can scare people if you're not a little scared yourself. >> and matthew perry. >> really wonderful to see you. >> opening up for the first time to diane sawyer about the depth of his addiction. >> 55 vicodin a day. >> "nightline" will be right back. for people who are a little intense about hydration. neutrogena® hydro boost lightweight. fragrance-free. 48-hour hydration. for that healthy skin glow. neutrogena®. for people with skin. becoming a morning person starts the night before with new neuriva relax and sleep. it has l-theanine to help me relax from daily stress. plus, shoden ashwagandha for quality sleep. so i can wake up refreshed. neuriva: think bigger.

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♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. lake mead for generations has been one of the nation's prime water supplies. but it might have been a reservoir for unsavory secrets as well. as an historic drought dries up its waters, the bodies have begun to appear, another one revealed this week. here's abc's matt gutman. >> reporter: under the baking heat of the desert sun, a phenomenon is unfolding before our very eyes. an historic drought, driven by climate change, and it's plunging the water level in lake mead, which is the biggest reservoir in the u.s., where seven states and at least 25 million people get their drinking water. >> lake mead, when it was nice

and full in the late '90s and beginning in the early 2000s, we were looking at a level that was 1,200 feet above sea level. this year, it's at 1,045 feet. when you think about how large this reservoir is, you're talking millions and millions of gallons. >> reporter: by now, you've already noticed the big white line in the mountains. they call that the bathtub ring. that's where the water used to be, just a couple of decades ago. over the past two decades, increasing temperatures and rising populations have put a strain on the dwindling water resources in this part of the country. >> what's different with this drop is that it's been a drop over 20 years. it is based on these temperature-driven droughts that we've seen in the region. >> reporter: in its wake, some of lake mead's long-held

mysteries are being revealed. between may and august of 2022, the remains of five human bodies turned up on lake mead's withering waters. gruesome discovery. >> a second set of human remains found at lake mead. >> another set of human remains -- >> startling discovry saturday afternoon -- >> fourth set of human remains are found -- answers -- >> reporter: earlier today, lake mead officials announcing the remains of a sixth body were found by a diver just over a week ago. no foul play is suspected. the body hasn't been identified. in fact, of the previous bodies found, almost all of them are the result of accidental drownings on the lake. i think the first picture i want you to show me is the one of you and your dad in the boat. >> yeah. yeah. i think that's our most recent one. yeah.

i was probably that same age, probably about almost 15. this was the boat we were in. i remember that's where he put his shirt and his keys before he jumped in. >> reporter: what remains are painful memories. these were parents, siblings, friends. and if they were anything like thomas ernt, they adored their family. so take me back to that day in 2002. >> we took our boat out. it was probably like 10:00. i think it was a little bit wavier that night. he jumped in and he like, "is anybody coming in with me?" kind of joking around. we were like, "no, you're crazy, it's cold, it's windy." he goes to try to swim back. i remember he was swimming and his hand hit the ladder. and he goes, "man, the boat's moving too fast, i can't quite swim fast enough to get on the ladder." all of a sudden, maybe like a few seconds later, we heard "help."

we were like, oh, crap. i'm, like, running to the front of the boat, trying to call 911. we heard "help" one more time. we had a light, but we couldn't really see very much what was going on. a sheriff boat arrived. and then they had helicopters come in with lights so we could finally see. and at that point, we didn't hear anything or see him anymore. >> reporter: vanished without a trace. that left tina and her family without closure for years. so when bodies began turning up in lake mead earlier this year, it brought with it just a glimmer, maybe, just maybe. did you follow the news about bodies being found? >> yes. and people were sending me articles, like people that had known our story from 20 years ago, "hey, look at this, they've been finding bodies in the lake, maybe one will be your dad." and i was like, no. he's -- like, they weren't able to find him then, they're not

going to be able to find him. >> reporter: but there were other bodies being found. some under conditions so mysterious that drowning felt unlikely. it was this baffling whodunit in particular that caught the world's attention. >> a guy was found in a barrel. obviously shot in the head. if we ever drained lake mead, we are going to find the criminal element of las vegas in this lake. >> reporter: was this finally vegas' checkered history revealing itself to the world? ♪ why are people so fascinated by the mafia? specifically in las vegas? >> it's a shadow history of america, right? these guys are involved in corruption of our politicians, of our judges, of our police officers. we look at them as somehow part of the fabric of our society. and we're fascinated by how they

got away with it, right? they got away with it for so long. >> why were they so violent? they had to be. they wanted word on the street that, you don't want to steal from them, you don't want to not pay them. so the violence was a way to control people. >> the most typical way the mob would kill somebody would be to shoot them with a .22 handgun in the back of the head. keep it simple. you know, and closeup shot so you don't miss. >> reporter: so we have a body in a barrel in lake mead from decades ago, unidentified, with a bullet in his head. and all fingers start pointing to the wiseguys of yesteryear. >> nobody crawls into a barrel and shoots themselves in the head, okay? that just doesn't -- that's a mob hit. >> it took decades, right, for this barrel to surface. i imagine, you know, the people

who dumped this body in the lake never expected it to emerge, right? lake mead is revealing its secrets. in process of revealing las vegas' secrets. >> reporter: there's a truth that's easy to overlook in this story. many of those missing are real people, not the ghosts of old vegas gangsters. in tina's case, 20 years pass, no answers. no closure. no way to say good-bye to her father. until the water fell just enough and lynnette melvin and her sister decided to spend a day on the lake. >> so we were just walking, talking, complaining about life and stuff. >> as one does. >> just normal girl stuff. >> uh-huh? >> and i almost tripped on the skull.

and i just kept walking. and i was just rambling on about something. >> you didn't know what you tripped over? >> no. my sister was the one that was like, "hey, that looks like bones." >> then i get a call from the coroner's office in vegas. and she's like, "hey, are you tina ernt? i think it might be your father." >> our thanks to matt. to see what happened to tina's father, stream "impact" by "nightline" on hulu. new episodes drop every thursday. coming up, "halloween ends." jamie lee curtis says good-bye to the role that made her a star. bring on another way to help protect from hiv. i prep without pills. bring on apretude. long-acting protection from hiv. apretude is a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of hiv without daily prep pills. bring on not worrying about daily doses.

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her legendary run as laurie strode in "halloween ends," facing off one final time with michael myers. the studio behind the movie has helped reinvent horror giving fans thrills, chills, sometimes nightmares. here's abc's ashan singh. ♪ >> jamie lee, right here! >> reporter: for the queen of screams, this is a moment 44 years in the making. jamie lee curtis is saying farewell to the role that ignited her hollywood career and immortalized her as horror royalty. >> come on, let's go. >> you ready to say good-bye to the "halloween" trilogy? >> yes, i am. i've sent laurie strode off with a big farewell party, and of

course, when i die, it will say like it did with my mother, "psycho actress dies," it will say "halloween actress dies." i'm in full acceptance and pride of that. >> reporter: in film after film curtis as strode facing off against the methodical killer michael myers in the "halloween" franchise. the original, an ultimate final role. >> i think her biggest legacy and my biggest legacy, of course, i'm laurie strode. forever. is that she never gave up. and never giving up -- that's a powerful legacy. >> reporter: earlier this month, the last installment of the "halloween" trilogy, "halloween ends" hitting number one at the box office. since the creation of cinema, there's one genre that has never failed to keep audiences running back to the theater. horror. behind this "halloween" trilogy and dozens of other box office

hits like "get out" -- >> get out! >> yo! >> reporter: "the purge." >> tonight allows people a release. >> reporter: and recently "the black phone." >> hello? >> reporter: is one unconventional studio that has become synonymous with scary movies, blumhouse. >> i really look at our horror movies as independent movies with scares. >> reporter: jason blum is the founder and ceo of the company and a true fan of spooky season. >> what i love about horror specifically is the celebration of things that are gross and things that are weird and unusual and people who are kind of outside the system. and horror stands for all that stuff. i didn't find my calling until i was 34, 35 years old. we did "paranormal activity." and finally, everything made sense. >> something's here.

i feel it breathing on me. >> reporter: produced with a tiny budget of approximately $15,000, blumhouse gave the found footage horror film a theatrical release in 2009 raking in nearly $200 million. >> our company is still really modeled on the "paranormal activity" model. we make very, very low-budget money, give the directors an unusual amount of creative control by hollywood standards. we used to make movies for $1 million, the ceiling. now ow movies are $10 million. >> still a considerably low budget. >> about a 90% off the sticker price of an average studio movie. so we're still pretty cheap. >> reporter: the company has also found a niche in rebooting beloved classics like "halloween" and turning them into blockbusters. currently the trilogy has grossed over $470 million worldwide and counting. david gordon green is the creative force. >> if you accept the opportunity of creative freedom, you have to

surround yourself with collaborators that you thrust. jamie's become a great part of the collaborative creative team. >> reporter: they first brought curtis and "halloween" back in 2018, picking up after the events of the 1978 original. not without the blessing of the film's creator, john carpenter. what did the success of that 2018 film tell you about the secret sauce that blumhouse seems to have? >> it's blood, baby. what the success of that movie gave me, though, is something i have wanted since i was 19. which is a creative home. >> reporter: on the set of "halloween ends," she was instrumental in making the fight scenes with the shape feel real. tell me about getting hands-on in that respect. >> my job in this room is going to be to call b.s. on anything that looks like a movie fight. i wanted a level of brutality which is synonymous with michael myers. i didn't want you to think for a second it was a stuntwoman. >> reporter: with "halloween" finished for now, blumhouse has set its sights on one of

horror's most impactful works in cinema, "the exorcist." and david gordon green is once again putting a modern spin on things. >> in 1973, the term exorcist, exorcism, is not something everyone knew. we're trying to take some of those themes, apply them decades later to a world that sees a different definition of what is possession? >> reporter: ellen burrstyn will reprise her role of the mother of the demon, reagan. starring alongside is a well-known talent stepping into the genre for the very first time. >> i've been such a fan of the genre. and of blumhouse very specifically. >> reporter: a broadway breakout star for his portrayal of aaron burr in "hamilton," two awards shy of the elusive egot, wesley reveres the 1973 original. >> being introduced to this film

that at one point had people fainting, you know, being pulled out of the theater by paramedics -- you know, it's got such a, it's got such a mythology around the film. >> reporter: odom isn't revealing just yet who his character will be. what are you channeling that's different than what you're used to? >> i don't know if you can scare people if you're not a little scared yourself. >> we spoke to jamie lee curtis a couple of weeks ago. >> legend. >> do you ever aspire for that type of longevity in a franchise? >> oh, sure. if you're lucky enough, you get to be a part of something that hangs around, something that matters beyond the moment in which it was created. >> for jamie lee curtis," halloween ends" signals a new chapter. >> the end of "halloween" is the beginning for jamie, which is beautiful. >> reporter: but she says it's the fans that have made the past four decades worthwhile. >> if i wouldn't have had my hands embedded in concrete, i

wouldn't have the creative life i had were it not for fans. fans of "halloween" movies are loyal, dedicated to the preservation of the story of laurie strode. and that's just the thing i'll miss the most for sure. >> our thanks to ashan. coming up, matthew perry and his dark struggle with addiction. becoming a morning person starts the night before with new neuriva relax and sleep.

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♪ finally tonight, our preview of diane sawyer's exclusive interview with matthew perry. the "friends" actor describing his horrifying spiral into drug addi addiction. how he built such a tolerance, he was taking more and more pills to stave off withdrawal. >> 55 vicodin a day, which is where i was. >> 55? >> yeah. >> how did you get 55 a day? >> well, i had to wake up and realize i need to get 55 of them, or i was going to be really sick. so i did all sorts of things. a bunch of doctors, fake

migraines, all that stuff. i guess the weirdest thing i did was on sundays i would go to open houses and go to the bathrooms in the open house. see what pills they have in there, steal them. and i think they thought, well, there's no way chandler came in and stole from us. >> you can catch more of diane and her exclusive interview tomorrow on "gma." as well as "20/20" primetime specials, and of course more here on "nightline." we'll see you right back here, same time to