Samantha Sherwood is a beautiful, aspiring actress who has herself committed to a mental institution to do some background research for the role of a lifetime. Sherwood will be playing a woman with unstable sanity in a film called ‘Audra’. Little does she know that well known director, Jonathon Stryker, plans to leave her at the mental institution for good. After finding out Stryker is letting a new group of girls audition for the role of Audra, she escapes the asylum and plots for revenge.
One of the girls who was going to audition, Amanda Teuther, is stabbed to death before she even gets the chance to go to Stryker’s mansion for the audition in a hilariously over-the-top set piece that actually made me jump a bit. The next day we are introduced to the five other women auditioning for the part of Audra. The girls consist of Patti, Brooke, Laurian, Tara, and Christie. The remaining five girls are left to audition meet Stryker at his mansion. Surprisingly, these five are given more personality than is usually the case in such slashers. These girls are catty, bitchy, and willing to kill for this dream role. Little do they know that there is another visitor along to surprise the hell out of them. If you didn’t figure out that Samantha would be appearing at the house without welcome, you owe me your slasher card. Well, after a night of the girls getting to know each other Christie is brutally murdered while figure skating by someone in a grotesque hag mask outside of Stryker’s house. Are the rest of the girls next?
“Curtains” is a whopper of a slasher film that does nearly everything right. Creepy costume? Check. Intriguing backstory? Check. Likable, if slightly over-the-top, characters? Check. Great death scenes? Double check. I know this movie went though hell in post production. Rumor has it that the film was shelved for a year, during which there were re-writes, re-shoots, and one major re-casting done. Eventually numerous crew members had to be re-hired to shoot the footage to complete the film.
This movie should be a mess. The fact that it isn’t is a miracle in and of itself but the fact that the movie is a damn near masterpiece? Well, let’s just say that the slasher gods must have been looking down on this movie because it is simply incredible. Love the twist at the end, love the figure skater who gets killed by the masked man in the old hag mask, and love the final chase. Sure it isn’t entirely believable and there is a bit of logic that must be stretched thin but that doesn’t stop this movie from being one of the best of its kind. Definitely worth checking out for slasher fans everywhere.
