Sam Panico
After the box office success of Prom Night, producer Peter R. Simpson wanted to create an "adult" slasher. After three troubled years, he had this film, which didn't do all that well with audiences or critics. That said - after years of cable viewing and even more years where the film wasn't available on DVD, it's become something of a cult classic.
Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar, Welcome to Blood City, The Brood, All the Kind Strangers) commits herself to an asylum so that she can prepare for the role of her lifetime: Audra. Yet once inside, she learns that her director and lover Johnathan Stryker (John Vernon, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Animal House) has actually left her there to rot.That's because a whole new group of young girls are about to audition for the role. Like Amanda, who has a dream that she sees a large doll in the road. When she goes to get it, she's run over. And when she wakes up, a killer in an old hag mask stabs her and steals the doll. The five remaining girls show up to audition for Stryker at his mansion: Patti (Lynne Griffin, Strange Brew and Black Christmas, two of the most Canadian movies ever), a stand-up comedian. Brooke (Linda Thorson, Tara King from TV's The Avengers), an actress. Laurian, a ballet dancer. Tara, a musician. And Christie (Lesleh Donaldson, Canada's top screen queen, thanks to roles in Happy Birthday to Me, Deadly Eyes and Funeral Home), an ice skater. And then Samantha shows up!The first night everyone is in the house, Tara and Matt, the caretaker, hook up in a jacuzzi. So does Christie and Stryker, but she pays in the price in the film's best scene when she gets her throat cut while ice skating. Her head ends up in a toilet bowl, which is pretty shocking even for a slasher, and Brooke freaks out upon finding it. So of course, Stryker hooks up with her.All Laurian wants to do is dance, so she gets stabbed. And while Brooke is banging Stryker, they're both shot and killed, falling down through a window. Tara runs from the mansion and finds Matthews body in the jacuzzi. Even though she escapes the killer three times, the fourth time is never the charm because things don't work in fours. She is dragged into a ventilation shaft and killed.Samantha and Patti celebrate with a toast, as Samantha tells her about killing Stryker and Brook. Patti is shocked and reveals that she is the killer, then murders Samantha. We cut to her in a mental asylum where she acts out the film for the other inmates.Lynne Griffin recalls filming an alternate ending where Patti would read a monologue to all of her victims while on stage. It was rejected, yet another issue in a production so tenuous that director Richard Ciupka has his name listed as Jonathan Stryker in the credits. Yes, the same person who is in this movie as the director.To be fair: this movie is a mess. It barely came together and while there are moments of suspense and one great kill, it's amazing that it came together to be a barely coherent movie at all.
IanIndependent
Hidden somewhere in this dated and predictable horror is a potential classic of the genre looking to escape. Curtains is a early slasher movie that uses the template that has now become the boring norm. Yet, there are some genuinely good scenes and frightening moments. Unfortunately, they are submerged between clearly sign posted plot devices and oh so obvious build ups. It is a film that needed to be a bit more enigmatic and a lot less episodic. With a bit more imagination it could have been a film we were still talking about as an original and best. Instead it isn't. If not instantly forgettable it is certainly one that I doubt I'll long remember.
Michael_Elliott
Curtains (1983) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Director Jonathan Stryker (John Vernon) is about to start another movie and his lead actress Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar) wants to make sure she knows what it's really like to be a crazy woman so she fakes an illness and has herself committed to an asylum. While in there she really does lose her mind and she's pushed over the edge when she learns that the director has invited six actresses to his mansion for a rehearsal to see who gets the lead role. Soon dead bodies start to pile up.CURTAINS is a Canadian slasher that has pretty much been forgotten over the years, although it does have a somewhat strong cult following. The film is actually a pretty well thought out movie that manages to have a couple interesting kills, an interesting killer and some pretty good performances from the cast. If you're looking for non-stop gore and violence then you'll probably be disappointed as it's clear that the filmmakers were trying to set themselves apart from what the typical slasher was at the time.I think the best thing going for the film is the cast. Vernon and Eggar aren't really the people you'd expect to see in a film like this but both of them bring a lot to the picture. Vernon was terrific as the rather jerk director who appears to have more up his sleeve than just an audition. Eggar is also extremely good as the actress who loses her mind and then sets out to let the director know the damage he has done to her. Both of them work extremely well together as does the rest of the supporting cast.The actual mystery of the picture plays out quite nicely and especially since the first thirty minutes has some very interesting twists and turns. These little scenes really keep you off guard for the rest of the picture, which was a plus. With that said, CURTAINS does have a few moments where things stall out. I think a little more action would have helped matters and a faster pace as well. Still, CURTAINS is certainly a lot different than your typical slasher and there's enough going for it to make it worth viewing.
gavin6942
Six young actresses auditioning for a movie role at a remote mansion are targeted by a mysterious masked murderer.Slasher fans will probably enjoy this film, as it offers six actresses, a director and a boyfriend as potential victims. Who will be killed next? Who is the killer? What is up with that nasty mask? And the ice skating scene... what? What plagues this film is the lack of character development. With unknown actresses playing the actresses, and most of them brunette, and none with a background story, they all sort of get jumbled together. This makes it hard to root for one over another and even try to keep them straight.But the script is more clever than first appears, once one connects the beginning to later moments... how does the play within the movie factor in to all this?
