Curtains is a 1983 Canadian slasher film directed by Richard Ciupka and Peter R. Simpson, written by Robert Guza Jr., and starring John Vernon, Samantha Eggar, Linda Thorson, and Lynne Griffin. Centered on theater and filmmaking, its plot focuses on a group of actresses auditioning for a role in a movie at a prestigious director's mansion, where they are targeted by a masked killer.
Conceived by producer Peter R. Simpson after his box office hit Prom Night (1980), the film was intended to be an "adult" slasher aimed at older audiences in contrast to the standard genre films of the time, which featured predominately teenaged characters. Shooting began in late 1980 and was the beginning of a troubled production marked by multiple rewrites and reshoots that spanned nearly three years. The film's protracted production ended in Ciupka detaching his name from the project.
The film premiered in the United States on March 4, 1983, and was released theatrically in Canada the following year to extremely negative reviews. Though a critical and box-office failure, the film became a staple of late night television. The film developed a cult following around the 2000s, with fans petitioning for an official DVD release. It had its first DVD and Blu-ray release by Synapse Films in 2014.
Plot[]
Samantha Sherwood, a beautiful actress and muse for director Jonathan Stryker, has herself committed to an asylum as a preparation for the titular role of a mentally unstable woman in a film called Audra. Once inside, she finds out that Stryker has left her there alone and lets a group of young girls audition for the role of Audra instead. Furious at being double-crossed, Samantha escapes the asylum to seek revenge.
One of the candidates, fledgling actress Amanda Teuther, has a weird dream. While driving to the audition, she spots a large doll in the middle of the road. When she leaves her car to move it, it grabs her hand as someone gets into her car and runs over her. After she wakes up from her dream, a killer in a hag mask stabs her to death and takes her doll.
The next day, the other five women auditioning for the part of Audra arrive at Stryker's mansion: comedian Patti O'Connor, veteran actress Brooke Parsons, ballet dancer Laurian Summers, musician Tara DeMillo, and professional ice skater Christie Burns. The caretaker is named Matthew. Samantha, the uninvited guest, appears at the house during dinner. The girls spend their first night getting to know each other. Tara has sex with Matthew in a jacuzzi as Stryker seduces Christie. Then, an unseen figure enters the tool shed, grabs a sickle, and sharpens it.
The next morning, Christie goes to a nearby pond for ice skating. She notices a small hand protruding out of the snow and uncovers a doll. The masked killer with the sickle appears and attacks Christie. The killer manages to wound her, but Christie is able to momentarily incapacitate the killer, escaping into the woods. As she rests against a tree, the killer appears from behind and viciously decapitates her.
Later that day, a drunk Matthew rides away on a snowmobile in search of Christie. Patti is given an impromptu audition with Stryker and nearly explodes with anger when he mocks her ability to act, not even giving her a chance to start. While Tara and Laurian are practicing, Brooke discovers Christie's severed head in a toilet bowl. She frantically informs Stryker of what she has seen, but when they go back to the bathroom, the toilet is empty. Exploiting Brooke's vulnerability, Stryker seduces the frightened actress. Meanwhile, Tara and Patti ponder Brooke's reason for claiming that Christie is dead, suspecting foul play. Later on, while Laurian is dancing in her room upstairs, the killer sneaks in and stabs her to death.
After having sex, Brooke and Stryker are both shot dead by a figure in a robe. They fall from the second floor, with Stryker's body crashing through a window downstairs. Tara subsequently discovers the bodies of Brooke and Stryker, as well as Matthew, who had been murdered off-screen. She attempts to flee the property but discovers the cars inoperable and covered in snow. Panicked, she takes shelter in Stryker's expansive prop shed, where she discovers Laurian's body among the hanging mannequins and is pursued by the killer. The killer ambushes Tara three times and she is able to fight them off, before hiding in a ventilation duct. Thinking she has outsmarted the killer, Tara begins to climb out of the duct, only to be pulled back in and murdered with an axe, her screams echoing throughout the prop shed.
A short time later, Samantha and Patti drink champagne in the kitchen, discussing Audra's insanity. Samantha tells Patti about Stryker's treachery for having abandoned her. She also admits to having killed Stryker and Brooke. Patti seems disappointed and angered by Samantha's confession, before revealing she had murdered the other women to win the role of Audra. She then proceeds to stab Samantha to death. Afterward, Patti is revealed to have been committed to a mental hospital, where she performs a monologue from "Audra" for the patients, who pay her no mind.