By Geno McGahee
The 1980’s came out with great whodunit slasher films. Curtains was not one of them. It was a whodunit and it was a slasher, but it was far from great, unfortunately. It is a film that has built a reputation as an overlooked gem, but after watching, I understand why horror fans tend to ignore it.
We begin with Jonathan Stryker (John Vernon), a film director that is known as the best, and he is casting for his new movie “Audra.” He sends out the call to six hopeful actresses, all of which want the shot at the big time. They also have to spend the time in his mansion and do exactly what he says, including pretending that one of them is a man and is trying to turn on another one. Watching a girl reluctantly feel up the naked boobie of another girl was a plus in my opinion.
Out of all of the girls vying for this role, the most annoying by far is the wannabe comedian, Patti (Lynne Griffin). Her jokes are horrible and they are nonstop. She feels the need to comment on everything said. The other girls are really interchangeable, including the established actress that is threatened by the group, Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar). At one time, Samantha intentionally got herself thrown into a mental institution for research on a part, under the advice of Stryker.
Now this is a whodunit and we need a killer and this killer, like most whodunits, sports a mask. This mask is very neat. The killer carries a sickle and wears an old hag mask. There is a really good scene where the killer is ice skating and chasing down one of the actresses, eventually chopping her up. Unfortunately, you don’t get much bang for the buck. As cool as this killer is, you hardly get to see her, and this movie slowly trudges along. The dialogue is bad and there isn’t much character development. The only character out of the entire film that is worth saving is Stryker.
His rants and raves are amusing and John Vernon does a tremendous job, but it’s too little, too late. When the killer is revealed at the end, it is far from a surprise and it isn’t done well either. Curtains is a failure all around. You’re not going to find too many worse 1980 slasher films.
Scared Stiff Rating: 2/10.
