One of the most underrated slasher films of the early 1980s, Curtains has been dissed by many genre critics, but is tops with me. John Stanley's Creature Features movie guide says of Curtains: "Irritating Canadian slasher film paints characters in muddy fashion. ... There's nothing clever or suspenseful about the murders, and the climax is neither riveting nor surprising. Jonathan Stryker's direction rambles."

The Overlook Encyclopedia laments: "After a conspicuously implausible red herring opening ... Curtains takes off into a drearily pedestrian variation on the masked-marauder theme. ... the script has not bothered to provide [the killer] with a semblance of motivation, any more than it has contrived any logic or suspense in the plotting of the attacks."

I first praised Curtains in the 1980s, in The Journal of Horror Cinema, then in the 1990s in Horror magazine and Horrorfind. At least some critics agree with me. In Slasher Films, Kent Byron Armstrong says: "Curtains is a very good slasher film." [Although he misspells Samantha Eggar's name throughout as Egger.]

Incidentally, contrary to Stanley's remarks, Jonathan Stryker is one of the film's characters, not its director. I'd thought it was an "inside joke," but Adam Rockoff reports in Going to Pieces that the real director, Richard Ciupka, was fired or quit mid-shoot "depending to whom you speak". Rockoff regards Curtains as "a decent slasher [film], but one that occasionally hints at greatness that could have been."

Well, I see more than hints at greatness. There is much to recommend Curtains, beginning with Samantha Eggar (The Brood, The Uncanny, Demonoid: Messenger of Death), who here portrays Samantha Sherwood, a classy fortysomething actress at her peak and imminent decline. Curtains also has a sociological dimension, examining two Hollywood customs practiced mostly by men: Riding a superstar wife's coattails to success, and dumping an aging wife. These customs are not necessarily connected. The discarded wife is often a quiet helpmate, not a star. But Curtains combines these themes to fine effect. And finally, there is a generous body count.

In Curtains, film star Samantha Sherwood buys the film rights to Audra (a hot play about a psychotic) for director Jonathan Stryker (John Vernon). It remains unclear whether they are (were?) married, but it seems they shared "something." A house in the wintry woods, for instance.

Feigning insanity, Samantha checks into an asylum to better understand her Audra character. Jonathan leaves her there to rot and sets about casting for a new and younger Audra. Six nubile actresses are scheduled for "a weekend audition at his house." An unknown woman (we never see her face) liberates Samantha from the asylum. Samantha arrives at the house to audition.

Everyone playacts in Curtains, on and off stage. Samantha feigns insanity. Jonathan feigns his intent to release her. An actress is "raped" by a burglar, who turns out to be her boyfriend playacting their usual sex game. O'Connor (the comedian in the group) playacts sex games with hand puppets, the dog cajoling a snake to "give head." (Like many comedians, O'Connor hides her pained neuroses and burning ambition behind jokes.) When the ice-skater discovers Jonathan and Samantha arguing, Jonathan claims they were rehearsing an old play. After Jonathan abuses O'Connor during an interview, she accuses him of playing directorial mind games. He smiles, mum. When Brooke becomes hysterical, claiming to have seen a severed head in her toilet, O'Connor accuses her of "putting on a show, acting like Audra."