"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.

This 1983 horror film stars John Vernon, Samantha Eggar and Lynne Griffin. The late, Vernon (Animal House, Killer Klowns from Outer Space) plays film/play director, Jonathan Stryker who is working on a new project. Eggar plays Samantha Sherwood, a respected actress who auditions for the lead, "Audra" and decides to do research on it by being committed to a mental institution. She eventually flees and learns that Jonathan left her there intentionally and has 6 other actresses auditioning at his mansion. Soon, a mysterious killer starts wiping out the women one by one. Is Jonathan trying to literally make the final cut? Is Samantha trying to get her revenge? or Are one of the actresses willing to kill just to get the part? Griffin (Black Christmas) plays actress/comedienne, Patti O'Connor. This is a good horror/slasher flick with a decent cast and eerie score that fans of the genre must view at least once.

I feel like the slasher genre has yet to get its due. A lot of the backlash no doubt started with moral watchdogs and high-minded critics, who felt that the genre both glorified violence while preaching a highly conservative (and even misogynistic) agenda. It certainly didn't help when Scream came along and created a list of largely inaccurate slasher rules that are quoted to this day. Even a cursory glance at the most mainstream of slashers (Halloween and Friday the 13th) will reveal numerous cracks in the popular theories surrounding the genre (the most prominent being that the final girl is rewarded for her virginity/purity), but these sweeping generalizations are even more difficult to justify when looking at something like Curtains.When I first bought a used VHS copy of Curtains from my local video store, a certain meta-fictional detail on the box baffled me. I must first explain the plot to show you why. Curtains is all about six actresses auditioning for the coveted titular role in Audra, the newest project of director Jonathan Stryker (John Vernon). After having the original lead, Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar), committed to an asylum - the method actress initially agrees to this for research, only to discover that Stryker has no intention of bailing her out - he invites the six actresses to his country home for what he tells him will be a unique and life-changing audition process. Meanwhile someone wearing an old hag mask (apparently a prop from Audra) is killing them all off one by one. The strangest detail in all this is that the film itself is credited to Jonathan Stryker, the director played by John Vernon. As I later learned, it was an extremely troubled production requiring massive rewrites and reshoots (most of them under the producer's direction), and the actual director chose to have his name taken off of the film.As troubled as the production apparently was, it mostly doesn't show on screen. Compromised or not (producer Peter Simpson says Ciupka wanted to make an art film, whereas Simpson actually wanted to make his money back), this is one of the most ambitious, mature, and surprisingly nuanced slasher films, with excellent performances across the board (barring a stilted psychiatrist in the opening scenes). What really gives this film a staying power that its contemporaries lack is the decision from Simpson and Ciupka to appeal to an adult audience. This means we have a completely adult cast of characters, and we deal with mature themes: megalomania (Stryker was inspired by Klaus Kinski), sexual manipulation, emotional abuse, and the exploitation of women in the film industry. Stryker claims that his audition process will give these actresses invaluable insight into themselves and acting, but what's really revealed is the ugly sexual politics and backstabbing so prevalent Hollywood. Unlike many films of this type, Curtains dwells on the impact that this emotional and physical violence has on its characters. Perhaps the saddest of these moments occurs after Stryker manipulates a naive young actress into sleeping with him. After he wordlessly puts on his clothes and leaves the room, she rolls over and starts to cry, the camera lingering on her wounded expression.Sadly the film doesn't end quite as strongly as it begins. The climax is where Simpson gains complete control of the narrative. He actually proves to be a skillful director, and the long cat and mouse sequence (set in an improbably labyrinthine prop shed, filled with all kinds of creepy knickknacks), is a definite highlight of the film. Its quasi-Surrealist imagery (an exit door leading to a bricked up wall, a room of hanging mannequins, a room of Twin Peaks-esque curtains) and baroque lighting would fit comfortably into an Italian horror film, and it gives the film a much needed shot of suspense. Unfortunately the ending, in which our killer and their motivation is revealed, isn't entirely convincing, and somehow this whole section seems to lose sight of the themes and conflicts built up so beautifully by Ciupka in the earlier parts of the narrative. The murder scenes throughout are quite striking (especially a ballsy one committed in broad daylight, generally considered a horror no-no), but the most impactful and disturbing scenes are those involving Stryker's mind games. While the killer's motivation is tied up in the audition process, somehow it doesn't resolve the film's themes in a satisfactory manner. The last scene ends things on an appropriately melancholy note, however, helped immeasurably by a Satie-inspired theme from composer Paul Zaza. Overall an impressively mature take on a much reviled genre, whose art-house aspirations elevate it beyond mere shocks for shock's sake. Try to see it in Synapse's brilliant restoration, which reveals how much love and care was really put into the film's visual style.

Two styles collide; one has a bit more style and flair (with emphasis on mood, lighting and camera angles etc.) while the other treats the material as a straight ahead stalk and slash flick. That's the mishmash that is "Curtains" and while it's a recipe for disaster somehow the film works quite well. Several aspiring actresses (and a seasoned one) gather at a remote country house (in icy winter, no less) and subject themselves to auditions by an eccentric director (Vernon) for an upcoming feature film. Someone among them is a killer and the actresses disappear one by one. What started out as an ambitious Hitchcockian thriller (by an ambitious first time director) was quickly shelved by the film's producer in favor of more slasher film elements that were popular at the time. Even though most viewers don't know what exactly was filmed originally and what was added on later; there is a striking difference in tone throughout the film and the climax, in particular, seems like an afterthought (although it's a thrilling sequence) where there's an extended chase scene in such different surroundings than all that's preceded it. There are some plot elements that appear only to be discarded completely early on (the creepy doll, for instance) and a character played by Michael Wincott must have remained mostly on the cutting room floor as his part is practically non-existent. The beginning; with Samantha Eggar as a seasoned film star voluntarily submitting herself to an asylum for research, is a nifty starting point which doesn't lead anywhere and is resolved rather clumsily once the actresses at the secluded country house storyline has begun. This feels rather disjointed and is definitely the work of two colliding directors. With all that said; "Curtains" is really an OK thriller and it's overall weird vibe propels it through it's rough spots. It's very well acted, not only by pro's Vernon and Eggar but Lynne Griffin and Lesleh Donaldson turn in fine work as well. The look of the film is splendid and there's an absolute stunner of a scene where the killer slowly approaches a victim on ice skates on a frozen lake which culminates in a very nasty and inventive kill scene; the stuff slasher fans eat up with delight. Also I think the "hag" mask the killer dons is quite unsettling and creepy as hell. A complete and utter mishmash but a treat for slasher fans who'll definitely be the ones giving this film a fair shot to begin with anyway. Highly recommended for that lot.Plus; I thought it was a nice touch to credit the main character Jonathan Stryker (the name of John Vernon's character) as the director since neither wanted the credit.