ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - March 4th
"CURTAINS" released in 1983
Six young actresses auditioning for a movie role at a remote mansion are targeted by a mysterious masked murderer, in Richard Ciupka's classic Canadian slasher film, Curtains!
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Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar), a beautiful actress and muse for director Jonathan Stryker (John Vernon), 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, Samantha escapes the asylum for revenge. One of the girls invited to audition, fledgling actress Amanda Teuther (Deborah Burgess), has a dream that while driving to the audition, she is stopped by a large porcelain doll standing in the middle of the road; when she leaves her car to move it, she is run over. Amanda awakens from her dream, only to be stabbed to death in her apartment. The next day, we are introduced to the five other women auditioning for the part of Audra who have all been invited to Stryker's mansion; comedian Patti O'Connor (Lynne Griffin), veteran actress Brooke Parsons (Linda Thorson), dancer Laurian Summers (Anne Ditchburn), musician Tara DeMillo (Sandee Currie), and professional ice-skater Christie Burns (Lesleh Donaldson). But as the audition weekend goes on, more and more girls meet a gruesome, the survivors desperately try to discover who is the killer in an old-hag mask - is it Samantha? Stryker? Or is one of the actresses willing to kill for the coveted part?
TRIVIA: Lesleh Donaldson was doubled by a figure skater for the skating sequence on the pond. Donaldson was originally going to do this sequence herself and even had undergone training in a skating arena to do her own skating routine, but fell down on the bumpy ice on the day this scene was shot and cut her chin. Moreover, Donaldson's skating double also played the killer in that same sequence.
Top and Above: Auditioning actressess (clockwise), Tara DeMillo (Sandee Currie), Laurian Summers (Anne Ditchburn), Christie Burns (Lesleh Donaldson), Patti O'Connor (Lynne Griffin), and Brooke Parsons (Linda Thorson), spend the weekend at director Jonathan Stryker's (John Vernon) secluded mansion, with his - former - "muse" Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar) .
With principal photography beginning in Muskoka and Toronto, Ontario, on November 10, 1980, the production was almost immediately experienced difficulty. Much of Curtains' troubled production stemmed from a clash between the film's debut director, Richard Ciupka, and producer Peter R. Simpson, with the former envisioning the film as more of an arthouse thriller, whereas Simpson wanted a more commercial slasher movie, similar to Prom Night (1980) which Simpson had previously produced. At one point, according to lead actress Linda Thorson, 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 (although veteran actress Samantha Eggar has stated she took the role chiefly for the work and salary).
In the end, Ciupka left the film over his disagreements with Simpson, having shot only forty-five minutes of the movie. The production was then halted for over a year while Simpson rewrote much of the script with Prom Night screenwriter Robert Guza Jr., who returned to the project for rewrites under Simpson's supervision - who had by then taken over directing duties for the reshoots. In addition to changes in the script, Simpson also replaced actress Céline Lomez (who originally played the role of Brooke Parsons) and replaced her with Linda Thorson. For years afterward there were rumors that Lomez was replaced because she refused to do a nude scene, however Simpson disputes the rumor and stated in a leter interview that, "Lomez was really replaced because they weren't impressed by Lomez's acting skills".
In the end, Ciupka left the film over his disagreements with Simpson, having shot only forty-five minutes of the movie. The production was then halted for over a year while Simpson rewrote much of the script with Prom Night screenwriter Robert Guza Jr., who returned to the project for rewrites under Simpson's supervision - who had by then taken over directing duties for the reshoots. In addition to changes in the script, Simpson also replaced actress Céline Lomez (who originally played the role of Brooke Parsons) and replaced her with Linda Thorson. For years afterward there were rumors that Lomez was replaced because she refused to do a nude scene, however Simpson disputes the rumor and stated in a leter interview that, "Lomez was really replaced because they weren't impressed by Lomez's acting skills".
TRIVIA: Michael Wincott's character Matthew, was originally supposed to have his death scene shown on screen - with him being killed on a snowmobile and then crashing into the library, scaring Sandee Currie's character, Tara DeMillo. This scene was later cut out of the film, and he is instead killed off-screen in a hot tub.
Top and Above: Unbeknownst to the other women, another actress due to audition for Stryker, Amanda Teuther (Deborah Burgess), has already been murdered by a killer wearing an old hag mask!
The climax as originally filmed had Patti performing her stand-up comedy routine on a theater stage surrounded by her dead victims. This alternate ending was not used in the final cut of the film was because, according to Curtains film editor Michael MacLaverty, "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. The scene was eventually changed in a reshoot to Patti pretending to perform her routine in the asylum in front of the inmates instead.
After the film was completed in 1982, director Ciupka detached his name from the final cut, and the film's director is credited as "Jonathan Stryker", the name of John Vernon's character in the movie. There was no official premiere for the film, though star Lynne Griffin recalled going to see the film on its opening night at a theater on the Lower East Side in Manhattan on March 4th, 1983. Although it was largely ignored by the press at the time of it's release, Curtains has gained a cult following over the years, with Dustin Putman of The Film File gIving the film three out of four stars, saying: "the picture doesn't always play by conventional slasher rules and its more surrealistic aspects render it all the more fascinatingly esoteric." Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com noted the film's haphazard construction, but praised the its visuals, writing, "Curtains isn't a single film, it's a handful of subplots and ideas competing for screentime under the guise of a traditional '80s-style slasher endeavor. Bizarre seems too mild a description when discussing this movie, which is actually stitched together from two production periods spread out over three years, with the original director, Richard Ciupka, taking his name off the effort when producer Peter R. Simpson elected to jazz up the rough cut with customary slicing and dicing. The fascinating backstory on Curtains is evident throughout the presentation, leaving the picture half-realized, shooing away substance to plow ahead with violence. It's a mess, but an entertaining one thanks to Ciupka's visual ambition and ensemble work from the oddball cast, who deliver the proper level of hysteria to assist what little suspense remains."
After the film was completed in 1982, director Ciupka detached his name from the final cut, and the film's director is credited as "Jonathan Stryker", the name of John Vernon's character in the movie. There was no official premiere for the film, though star Lynne Griffin recalled going to see the film on its opening night at a theater on the Lower East Side in Manhattan on March 4th, 1983. Although it was largely ignored by the press at the time of it's release, Curtains has gained a cult following over the years, with Dustin Putman of The Film File gIving the film three out of four stars, saying: "the picture doesn't always play by conventional slasher rules and its more surrealistic aspects render it all the more fascinatingly esoteric." Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com noted the film's haphazard construction, but praised the its visuals, writing, "Curtains isn't a single film, it's a handful of subplots and ideas competing for screentime under the guise of a traditional '80s-style slasher endeavor. Bizarre seems too mild a description when discussing this movie, which is actually stitched together from two production periods spread out over three years, with the original director, Richard Ciupka, taking his name off the effort when producer Peter R. Simpson elected to jazz up the rough cut with customary slicing and dicing. The fascinating backstory on Curtains is evident throughout the presentation, leaving the picture half-realized, shooing away substance to plow ahead with violence. It's a mess, but an entertaining one thanks to Ciupka's visual ambition and ensemble work from the oddball cast, who deliver the proper level of hysteria to assist what little suspense remains."
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 60%
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