Curtains (1983)

CURTAINS is a grim and dark Canadian slasher movie from 1983. The plot, about a number of young actresses auditioning for a film director at a bleak and remote mansion, is nothing special, and the constant storytelling really does nothing for the movie apart from slowing the pace down and making it pretty boring to watch. The too-dark cinematography means that all of the crucial death scenes are hard to see and might as well take place in pitch blackness. No, the only thing interesting about this movie is the presence of Hollywood notables like John Vernon and Samantha Eggar, with Linda Thorson and a youthful Michael Wincott alongside them; the rest is merely sleep-inducing.

"Curtains" was one of the last gasps to come out of the Canadian tax shelter era. Actually, it apparently wouldn't have been had the movie not had a lot of production problems that resulted in the movie taking several years to complete. The production problems are unfortunately clear while watching the movie; there are some plot details that are not very coherent, and some scenes play out in a kind of incomprehensible manner. But I think the movie would still have been a disappointment without the production problems. It's a very slow-moving exercise; it takes almost a third of the movie to set up the situation, and there are only two murders in the movie's first hour of running time. Gorehounds will be further let down, since the level of blood in the movie is by itself only worthy of a PG rating at most. I admit the movie is not without merit. There is some style injected in here and there, the best part being the genuinely creepy ice skating scene. But these stylistic touches only add up to a few minutes of the total running time. The rest of the movie has all those aforementioned problems and a lot more. It's no surprise why the movie's director used a pseudonym.

Actress Samantha Sherwood is a long time collaborator with director Jonathan Stryker. She gets the rights to his latest project Audra for him. He convinces her to sign into an asylum for research. She acts out as a charade but he may have other motives. He's actually interviewing other actresses for the lead. Sherwood manages to escape to join them while the actresses are getting killed off one by one after they discover a creepy doll.It's rather stupid that these wide ranging actresses are all going to an isolated mansion for an audition. It's a pretty bad 80s Canadian horror but I love the crazy mask. When the killer is skating across the ice with that mask and that blade, I laughed out loud. The whole scene is put together in such a wonderfully campy way with the music and the slow motion. The seriousness of the acting adds to the campy feel of the movie. It's like an Actors Studio discussion and killings happen every once in a while. There are no real scares because none of the characters are that compelling. I don't really care about any of them and I don't care who the killer is. The hideous mask is fun and there are other fun stuff too. However I wouldn't say this is an undiscovered gem. It's just undiscovered.

This movie is one of the slowest and most boring slasher movies I've seen in a long time. The mask worn by the killer is shown way too much and loses its creepy factor very early on. Sadly poor "positive" reviews brought it to my attention and I gave it a watch with my girlfriend and her brother. We are all slasher fans and even enjoy the poorly made ones.This movie can not be recommended to anyone. Even fans of these types of movies, where nothing happens until the absolute end, should avoid this movie.And with the worst "hunter hunting prey" stalking scenes, you're not missing out on anything. Especially the second to last kill is the absolute worst ever. There's no surprise as to who the killer is. I mean if I had been awake I could've possibly seen it coming.A lot of negative things can be said about it, but in the end, if you enjoy watching a movie for the poor script, waiting for things to happen, an ending which makes you go "ehm okay", then this is the movie for you! :)