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"Curtains" features a group of women who have been summoned to a prestigious director's mansion to audition for a film; meanwhile his frequent collaborator and muse, a glamorous and established actress, has intentionally admitted herself into a psych ward in order to prepare for the role he is now offering to one of the younger talents. Things are doomed for the the young women from the start when a killer in a grotesque hag mask begins killing them along the way.

One has to wonder why a film like "Curtains" has been so longly ignored except among cult horror purists— fans have ached for a proper DVD release of the film, and it certainly deserves at least that. It is not a great film, but it is great if we're measuring it on a slasher scale.

Though it is most definitely a slasher movie, there are shades of class here that set it apart from the sleazier body count films of the era, and the performances are part of this, but also a great deal of attention to cinematography and the establishment of mood. The entire film has a dark, somber, weather-drenched atmosphere that is immediately off-putting, and things become progressively macabre after the girls reach the remote mansion.

It's an interesting and unusual setup, and there is a lot of subtext about filmmaking and performance that is played up with some minor intelligence. While the establishment of mood is fantastic here, and the setting is delectably spooky, there is a sense of disconnectedness in the film on a tonal level. Given the film's purportedly lengthy, troubled production, this makes sense, but it does create a feeling of the film not really being the sum of its parts— at least not the sum that it could have been. That said, the film is nevertheless successful at maintaining an eeriness.

The performances here are great, with John Eggar as the cold and calculated director, and Samantha Eggar as his glamorous "has been" muse. These two are the veterans of the film, both literally and narratively. Linda Thorson, Lynne Griffin (of "Black Christmas"), and Lesleh Donaldson ("Funeral Home") are welcome additions to the younger actresses, and give respectable performances, especially Griffin.

Overall, "Curtains" excels at being a moody and moderately classy slasher film. There are enough death scenes to appease the gore crowd, and enough suspense and mood to engage the more narratively-inclined audience, and, while the film's disjointed production seeps into the final product, the parts are effective enough to take precedence over the sum. 8/10.

As slasher movies go, this one is not too bad. It borrows liberally from other more famous Canadian slasher films (the wintry setting and actress Lynn Griffith from "Black Christmas", the killer's mask from "Terror Train"), but it's not a bad little film in its own right. It has a good set-up. Six young actresses are gathered together in an isolated house to compete for the same theatrical role (of an insane woman). As it turns out the treacherous director (John Vernon) had previously given the part to an older actress (Samantha Egger) who had gone so far as to fake her way into a mental institution to research the role and ended up being left there by the director. Soon the competitors start disappearing one-by-one. But is it the director, the bitter older actress, or has one the younger would-be thespians been driven over the edge by the competition? The movies falls apart a little in the middle (apparently there were directorial problems-- the director on record, "Johnathon Stryker", has the same name as the character in the movie, and, according to this website, they also had to replace a lead actress). The ending is good, however, and pretty surprising--and it definitely has some very spooky scenes.

This is one of the rare slasher movies that is more interested in creating a strong atmosphere and developing the characters than in showing 101 ways to carve up annoying, brain dead teenagers. If you're the proud owner of the "Sleepaway Camp" box set you might want to pass on this one, but if you like horror movies that are well-crafted and actually a little bit scary, this is worth a look

Some creepy moments and an atmospheric location, but "Curtains" is also ponderous and bloodless, which, for a slasher coming at the end of a cycle, is suicide. It seems to have been inspired by Soavi's "Stagefright", an excellent slasher, but it's too slight, too low key to make any impact. The plot, if you can call it that, focuses on women auditioning for a part in a horror film. They don't get the part, they get killed.

The Australian "Nightmares" (by John Lamond) bears some resemblance to this, but uses its theatre setting to better effect.

The poster art depicting a deformed doll and a curtain was striking and raised expectations, but director Jonathan Stryker seems incapable of pacing the narrative and is finally undone by is refusal to let the blood run free.

Contrary to popular belief, good horror movies are still being made nowadays, but we can't really deny that the 1970's and 80's were the greatest and absolute most profitable decades for the genre. The 70's resulted in numberless amounts of nasty & experimental exploitation movies whereas the 80's pleased us with a wide variation of grotesque and often downright demented slasher movies. Richard Ciupka's "Curtains" is one of the prime examples to state why the insanity of the 80's horror industry will probably never be equaled ever again. It's a thoroughly weird and unconventional low-budget shocker, and even though the plot is full of holes and completely implausible, the film literally bathes in an atmosphere of genuine creepiness and morbidity. The script is poorly written and very incoherent, nearly forcing the viewers to link bits & pieces of the story together themselves, but somehow the far-fetched events featuring in "Curtains" are fascinating and suspenseful to behold. Horror-regular and utter cool guy John Vernon ("Killer Klowns from Outer Space", "Sweet Movie") stars as an eccentric and slightly crazy director who's about to realize his ultimate dream, namely a theater-adaptation of the famous "Audra"; the tale of a remarkable female psychiatric patient. His regular lead actress Samantha Sherwood is so obsessed with getting the titular part she even has herself committed in an actual asylum to research the role. While Samantha is stuck in the asylum, Jonathan Stryker – bastard that he is – recruits six young and inexperienced actresses to audition for the role instead of Samantha. They're all invited to spend the weekend up at Stryker's remote mansion in the hills, but naturally a maniacal killer joins the party as well and immediately begins to wipe out the six contenders for the part. Did Samanta escape the asylum for revenge? Is it one of the women who can't deal with competition very well? Or perhaps Stryker finally went totally berserk? You don't require an IQ of 150 to figure out the killer's identity rather quickly, but Ciupka manages to maintain a respectable level of tension until the very last sequences and particularly the deaths of the girls are memorably gruesome. Most notably, there's one scene where the killer skate-stalks his/her screaming victim over a frozen pond, menacingly waving around a sickle! The isolated filming locations add a great deal of claustrophobic atmosphere to the movie and it also features a lot of effectively sinister scenery, like creepy old dolls, secondhand theater attributes and – of course – the killer's uncanny mask; which shows the face of an old witch with protruding eyes and a wide-open mouth. With a slight bit of imagination, you could even say that the mask used in "Curtains" predates the one in Wes Craven's "Scream" with more than a decade! Even though the dialogs are laughably inept, John Vernon still manages to deliver an engaging performance and he even compensates for the actresses' lack of talent. Also, keep an eye open for the brief supportive role of Michael Wincott, who later moved on to better Hollywood films like "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and "The Three Musketeers". "Curtains" is once again a Canadian horror production, like so many other guilty pleasures of that decade. The list is nearly endless, with "Visiting Hours", "Prom Night", "Humongous", "Happy Birthday to Me", "Bells", "Funeral Home" and "The Pit". Essential viewing if you consider yourself a fans of cheesy 80's goodness, you can't afford to miss "Curtains".

There was certainly a lot more slashers released during the eighties than there needed to be; but every now and then, you'll come across a decent one and while it has its fair share of problems, Curtains is one such film. The film is both a trashy eighties slasher, and a somewhat inappropriate commentary on the mentality of aspiring actresses. These two ideas blend well with the mystery plot too, as there's plenty of red herrings for the audience to mull over and a somewhat bitchy atmosphere to most of the lead characters. The plot seems to focus on the relationship between film director Jonathan Stryker and his long term muse Samantha Sherwood. For his next film, Samantha is required to be committed to a mental asylum in order to research the role. However, this is actually a ruse to allow the director to audition six younger actresses while Samantha stays inside. However, she manages to escape and get herself to the old mansion where the auditions are taking place. Around the same time, several of the young starlets start to disappear...

Normally, there's a high amount of gore in any given slasher; and while Curtains features a handful of murder scenes, none of them are particularly bloody and director Richard Ciupka seems to prefer to keep the focus more on atmosphere and tension than gore. The plot pacing is somewhat ponderous, so the film isn't always filled with tension - but the scenes that feature the murderer are largely well executed, and the mystery as to who is behind the mask is one that seems worth uncovering. Curtains takes place in a creepy old mansion house, and this provides a more than adequate location for the film to take place in. The acting is decent also, with two central performances - those coming from John Vernon and Samantha Eggar standing out among the younger cast. The conclusion to the film is particularly well done, and this ensures that the audience leaves the film on a high. The mystery behind the murderer is clever in that all the cards are kept close to the chest until the end, and while the culprit is unlikely - it does come as a surprise. Overall, Curtains is hardly a brilliant film, but it's not bad and certainly is worth seeing.