Slasher Stop Off - Curtains (1983)

The question going into “Curtains” (1983)—I caught a solid HD version that seems as great a transfer as I’ll ever see—was “why the hype?” I knew this film had a cult following and I was curious as to what reason might be for such a reputation. I did try to watch a bad VHS copy of this film some years back and I badly needed this afternoon’s quality version to truly appreciate it for what I felt was indeed its key success…the cast of female talent. You could indeed nickname this “The Casting Couch” if not for the psycho in hag mask getting rid of competitors vying for a “special part” of Audra. Samantha Eggar is quite a red herring…she spends time in a mental asylum and is left there by the director, John Vernon, believing she is actually “too far gone” to play the role anymore! Eggar won’t have none of that recasting nonsense—or is it another among the actresses collected willing to bump off all the others in order to attain that so sought after and desired role?

As a slasher film, there are two key sequences that work extremely well: the well-touted ice skating charge where the killer in hag mask pursues skater, Christie (Lesleh Donaldson; she was the first victim in the slasher film, “Happy Birthday to Me” (1981)), with sickle in hand and the big chase/pursuit of Sandee Currie’s  Tara DeMillo in the director’s “theater barn” where he kept props and set pieces. The ice skating scene is often always cited by slasher fans as the best not only in the film but the slasher genre. While I like it, it is essentially a slow motion charge of the killer in the mask and Christie, who had been distracted by a creepy doll that was taken from the first actress victim, trying to get away. Currie’s scene works so well because she is framed as the final girl, with an extended fight back/get away, fight back/getaway repetition that would lead you to believe she’ll eventually escape. I think some might critically target Currie for not making sure her attacker was once and for all subdued, and not doing that eventually led to her demise. I like Currie. I thought she was quite foxy in “Terror Train” and found out she was in “Curtains” so I watched this today as a result of that research. I read she unfortunately died quite young, back in 1996. She’s given much more to do, but unfortunately it wasn’t really until the second half. There is this rather oddly designed “acting piece” where Vernon’s Jonathan Stryker is behind a scene between ballerina, Laurian (Anne Ditchburn), having to “assume the role” of a man, “tasked” with touching the breast of Currie’s Tara. Laurian just can’t do it while Tara sort of stands there patiently with Stryker getting more and more agitated at the reluctance. And early in the film, Tara admits she might fuck to actually land the role of Audra, even in the hot tub not long after with an associate of Stryker’s (Michael Wincott), making out with the guy. I think the only problem with Tara is that she doesn’t get the same definition in character as Lynne Griffin (the first victim of Billy in “Black Christmas” (1974)), whose comic, Patti, is quite electric, quipping and sharp-witted, really ripping into Stryker after being challenged on her dedication to landing Audra.

Where this fails as a slasher film is in the murders themselves. Most off-screen despite a really epic murder weapon (the sickle curves into quite a C-shape), besides a head in a toilet and a slight stab to a shoulder, the film offers Eggar losing it and firing a gun at Stryker and renowned (but struggling) actress, Brooke Parsons (Linda Thorson), who had slept together not long after. There is a really weird fall through the second floor window into the bottom floor window that looks quite sketchy, an attempted edit from different ideas shoehorned together in a knit that proves the reported troubled production history is evident and quite apparent.

But there are some real gem scenes that have little to do with the slasher aspects surfacing here and there. My favorite is when Stryker challenges Eggar’s Samantha Sherwood to seduce him under the hag mask. The intensity of his challenge, how the actress and director are always pushing one another, and the Audra role that she bought the rights for so they could together create the project so attractive…attractive enough to draw actresses from all walks to Stryker’s two-story country home at a rural wintry estate off the beaten path, far removed from LA…the director practically humiliates the actress, despite her passion for the part resorting in a stay at the asylum, in front of the remaining actresses (blond Deborah Burgess, into kinky stocking-mask intruder sex with some mustachioed lover, loses her doll to the killer, stabbed in her own home before she could even leave for Stryker’s, while Christie had been beheaded outside). The opening of the film is also quite a good piece featuring the compelling Eggar inside the asylum, gradually succumbing to the very mania she was inside to method act study…that Stryker would just leave her there and try to recast without her says a lot about the kind of piece of work he is. When he “negotiates” sex with the much younger Christie, and once he ties his shoes and leaves the room without even looking at her—complete with Christie in tears and covering up herself in shame—it’s certain to leave creepy Weinstein vibes. And both Brooke and Samantha realize she might be who he sets his eye on. So when she’s killed the next morning, either of them could be suspect. Brooke did say she would “kill” for the role…yeah, yeah, “red herring alert!”

Admittedly, this isn’t a film I would necessarily feature highly on my “top slashers” list but I think it has some real treasures to observe. Griffin has one of her best roles, offering a multi-faceted stand-up comedian with her own issues, eventually revealed in the final “act”. Her comedy is often a mask, also, sort of protective layer from rejection and disappointment in an industry that gobbles actresses up and spits them out. Eggar is ALWAYS watchable and she is the kind of actress that can tell you with her eyes and facial expressiveness that there is a lot going on in her mind. She can show you plotting just with a brief camera shot on her face. Thorson, too, reveals a very vulnerable actress, still capable of acting her ass off, but understanding that she needs a boost to her lagging career, frustrated with her preening agent’s obvious contemptible tone (he is clearly annoyed at her demanding and prima donna expectations). Thorston’s anxiety and worries are never more obvious than when she scans the others vying for the part she feels desperate to land…the threat of them leaves her downing booze, studying her looks in the mirror, and obsessively reading over and over the script. When her Brooke sleeps with Stryker, it could be perceived as the final attempt to secure the part, leaving Samantha with the decision to put an end to all of it. 3/5

*the production history of this film I recommend researching. It is surreal how a difference of opinion and approach to the story could result in such an onslaught of issues the kept the final product from release.

**the pacing of the film will no doubt alienate a particular section of slasher fans. I think if you look at it as a psychological thriller and melodrama on what a role so desired can do to those wanting it so badly they very well could lose their soul in the process the film might work better. Perhaps this is why it is so treasured by its fans.