Curtains (1983)

I've got one vhs copy of Curtains, but I'm supposed to have two copies. Why? Well one time a batch of movies I won on ebay arrived with two tapes missing. Curtains and Iced. A duplicate of Curtains I can do without, but I wanted Iced, since it's made by a Jeff Kwitny who directed the bizarre Beyond the Door III. I demanded that the 2 missing tapes be sent. They never were.

The initial box took two and a half months to arrive, the longest I have ever waited for something I won on ebay. The seller took down his feedback page, which if you ask me, should not be allowed. He whined like a bitch about family problems and having to close up his ebay shop. Good. Known as tallasainchic, this man C. Patterson is no longer on ebay. If he comes back, I'll post his e-mail address so we can all sent hate mail.

Curtains is a respected Canadian slasher that is well put together despite being known for having lots of production problems and having been shelved for three years. The first reel, taking place in an insane asylum, is a little slow. Things don't really get rolling until after the first killing and it's the appearance of two props that really makes the movie work. One is a miserable looking doll, the other, a rubber mask of an old hag. The slow motion shot where the masked killer attacks on ice skates on a pond in the forest will never be forgotten.


Curtains - this box cover image is the same as the one on this poster, which shows the upper part of the old hag mask and the dolly
Directed by Richard Ciupka as 'Jonathan Stryker', which is also the name of the filmmaker character in this movie.



Cub, your moment of genius was recognizing the lead actress in this movie (Samantha Eggar) as the actress who played the Mom in David Cronenberg's The Brood. How did you make that connection?

I knew that she looked very familiar because she has a distinctive look ( I think it was the eyes and mouth) and then it just came to me that she had to be the mom in the Brood. It was also around the same time period so I figure I had to be right. Damn I'm good!

Cub I think this movie wins for most effective use of a creepy doll. Something that has been done dozens of times. Would you agree? I think it's cause the doll is sad looking.

I totally agree with you 100%. It was due to the fact that the doll was sad looking and that it was standing in the middle of thestreet while it was pouring outside with it's back turned to us. That was a unique take on things that worked for the movie.

Off-topic question: Cub your mission to be photographed in a spread with Asia Argento only resulted in you getting tons of pathetic voice mails from a sleazy producer asking you to hang out in Malibu. How do you feel about this set back?

HA. I can't believe you are posting this. I guess it just goes to remind all the people out there that if an individual does not call you back there is no need for you to have to try and contact them 5 times (let alone a second time). Sorry boys and girls, your rationalization of "oh, maybe they lost my number" or "perhaps they never received any of the messages I left" is simply not true, and you are just kiddingyourself if you think that there is a chance. You would think that one would get the point after trying to call a girl the second time around with no luck... but that just goes to prove that some of us out there really have no clue. (I can ramble on and on about this sort of thing, cub.... so I will stop now).