Curtains (1983 film)

Curtains

Official 1983 one-sheet poster
Directed by Richard Ciupka (as Jonathan Stryker)
Produced by Peter R. Simpson
Written by Robert Guza, Jr.
Starring John Vernon
Linda Thorson
Samantha Eggar
Anne Ditchburn
Lynne Griffin
Lesleh Donaldson
Sandee Currie
Music by Paul Zaza
Cinematography Robert Paynter
Edited by Michael Laverty
Henry Richardson (uncredited)
Distributed by Jensen Farley Pictures (USA)
Norstar Releasing (Canada)
Release dates
  • March 4, 1983 (US)
  • September 14, 1984 (Canada)
Running time
 90 minutes[1]
Country Canada
Language English
Budget $3,700,000 (Estimated)

Curtains is a 1983 Canadian cult horror film directed by Richard Ciupka, and starring John Vernon, Samantha Eggar, Linda Thorson and Lynne Griffin. The plot tells the story of a group of actresses targeted by a masked killer at a prestigious director's remote mansion where they are auditioning for a role in a movie.

After having a markedly troubled production that included reshoots spanning two years, the film became a staple of late night television, only to later receive attention through word of mouth among genre fans, many of whom cite the Lesleh Donaldson's 'ice skating' murder scene as the memorable highlight.

Plot

Samantha Sherwood, a beautiful actress and muse for director Jonathon Stryker, has herself committed to a mental institution as method preparation for the titular role of a mentally unstable woman in a film called Audra. Once finding out Stryker is letting a new group of girls audition for the role of Audra, she escapes the asylum for revenge.

One of the girls invited to audition, Amanda Teuther, is stabbed to death before she departs for Stryker's mansion.

The next day, we are introduced to the five other women auditioning for the part of Audra. They are comedienne Patti O'Connor, veteran actress Brooke Parsons, dancer Laurian Summers, musician Tara DeMillo, and ice-skater Christie Burns. A caretaker named Matthew is also introduced. Samantha appears at the house uninvited during dinner. The girls spend their first night in the mansion getting acquainted, Tara having sex with Matthew in a jacuzzi and Christie reluctantly seduced by Stryker.

The next morning, Christie is attacked and decapitated with a sickle by someone in a grotesque hag mask while ice skating on a nearby pond.

Later that day, after the killer watches a drunk Matthew ride away on a snowmobile, Patti is given an impromptu audition with Stryker and nearly bombs, due to nerves. While Tara and Laurian are auditioning, Brooke discovers Christie's severed head in a toilet bowl. She frantically informs Stryker of what she's 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, Tara suspecting foul play. At the same time, Laurian is stabbed to death while dancing in a room upstairs.

After having sex, Brooke and Stryker are both shot to death by a figure in a robe. The gunshot victims fall from a second story window, Stryker's body crashing through a window downstairs. Terrified at the sight of the corpse, Tara flees the mansion. Running past Matthew's corpse, Tara is chased by the hag through a prop storage shed. After escaping the killer three times and discovering Laurian's corpse among a group of hanging mannequins, she is dragged into a ventilation shaft and killed.

A short time later, Samantha and Patti discuss Audra's insanity in the kitchen, over champagne. Samantha tells Patti about how Stryker left her in the aslyum and eventually confesses to shooting Stryker and Brooke. Startled by the news of Stryker's death, Patti reveals that she murdered the others to win the part of Audra and then stabs Samantha to death.

The epilogue consists of Patti performing Audra to other patients in the mental institution.

Cast

Production

Filming for Curtains began November 10, 1980. The film was shot on locations in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The film had a very troubled production though. Ultimately the film was shelved for a year, during which there were re-writes, re-shoots, and one major re-casting done. As a result, two sets of credits grace the ending of "Curtains," namely "Act I" and "Act II," denoting the two different, protracted production periods.[2] Eventually numerous crew members had to be re-hired to shoot the footage to complete the film.[3]

Curtains' troubled production stemmed from a clash between the film's director and Simcom producer Peter Simpson. The former envisioned the vehicle as more of an arthouse thriller, while Simpson wanted a more commercial slasher of the type that was en vogue at the time.

According to actress Linda Thorson, at one point the tension between the two became so intense it caused many of the actors to feel uncertain whether the production would even move forward at all.[4]

As for her work in Curtains, veteran actress Samantha Eggar has stated she thought the characters "vaguely-drawn" and the end result "awful," but took the role chiefly for the work and salary.[5]

In preparation for the film's ice-skating sequence, actress Lesleh Donaldson was sent for skating practice by the film's producers. She had very little prior training in the field, and even had fellow actress Anne Ditchburn help with her choreography. However, when filming for that scene commenced, Donaldson tripped on the uneven ice and injured herself, resulting in a stand-in double being used for her long shots.[6]

Thorson was cast in the role of Brooke Parsons after actress Celine Lomez left the production. This was long rumored to have been due to Lomez refusing to do full-frontal nudity, but this was later rebuffed by Simpson, who stated the actress had simply been fired.

Alternate footage

Deleted scenes include a backstory sequence where, prior to arriving at Stryker's retreat, Christie is emotionally rejected by her skating coach. This scene was intended to show the character's vulnerability when she is rejected again, this time by Stryker.[2]

Actors Michael Wincott and Anne Ditchburn also originally had more dialogue, but most their lines were cut from the final version of the film. Wincott's death was also originally filmed with him being killed on a snowmobile, and then crashing into the library, scaring Sandee Currie's character. This scene was later cut out of the film, and instead he is killed off-screen in a hot tub.[2]

Actress Lynne Griffin recalls filming an alternate ending in Toronto. In this scene, her character Patti O'Connor delivers a monologue on a theatre stage surrounded by her dead victims. This alternate ending was not used in the final cut of the film.[7]

According to Michael MacLaverty, film editor for Curtains, the alternate theatre ending was ultimately discarded because Alana Simpson—then wife of producer Peter Simpson—felt it was "too improbable." "[Alana] couldn’t really accept the fact that all these corpses were somehow dragged together [by the killer] and put on a stage somewhere," recalls MacLaverty.[8]

Release

After three years in production, Curtains was released in the USA on March 4, 1983 and Canada in 1984. Although it was largely ignored by the press, it has gained a cult following over the years.[9]

The film was released in Italy as The Mask of Terror and as Death Count to Seven in Norway.

Influence

Home media

Curtains was first released on VHS by Vestron Video in 1984.

The film was first released on DVD on October 5, 2010 by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment, as part of the Midnight Horror Collection: Bloody Slashers DVD collection, which also includes Secrets of the Clown, Hoboken Hollow and Room 33, 3 direct-to-video B-movies.[11] This release featured generic cover art and a poor transfer from VHS source material.

On July 29, 2014, Curtains was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Synapse Films, featuring a new 2K transfer from the original prints, as well as a 5.1 surround sound audio remastering.[9] It features a retrospective "Making of" documentary, as well as vintage documentary footage, an audio commentary, and the film's original theatrical trailer.

References

External links