An unnoticed little film at the time of its original release, Curtains was co-directed by Richard Ciupka and producer Peter Simpson...and is a real treat for those who prefer their horror low-key.

A cinematographer as well, Ciupka's most notable previous effort was photographing Atlantic City, the well-received 1980 film that garnered Academy Award nods for stars Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon. Producer Simpson had given the world 1980's Prom Night.

Disagreements between Ciupka and Simpson about the vision of Curtains resulted in a half finished product. After Ciupka left in midshoot, Simpson shot additional scenes and backstories for the actresses. At any rate, the production was indeed troubled enough that Curtains wouldn't see a theatrical release for another two years and the director was ultimately credited under a pseudonym: Jonathan Stryker.

The name of the director within the movie, Stryker was played by John Vernon, perhaps known best for playing Dean Vernon Wormer in the smash box-office hit National Lampoon's Animal House.

Among the cast are Samantha Eggar, whose role in David Cronenberg's The Brood had been unforgettable and Linda Thorson, Diana Rigg's replacement in TV's The Avengers. Fans of Black Christmas will recognize Lynne Griffin in a decidedly different role.

With a group of attractive women, inventive killings, and a subtle and memorable score by Paul Zaza, you have to wonder why this one isn't better regarded.

Samantha Sherwood (Eggar) is a well-known, respected actress. She very much wants the lead in a film called Audra, the latest project from director Jonathan Stryker (Vernon), whom she's worked with in the past. She believes it's just the role that can jumpstart her career again.

Her audition doesn't go very well. Stryker is not convinced she can pull the part off. Together, they hatch a plan to better prepare Samantha for the demanding role. Since Audra is a former mental patient, the two plan to check her into a psychiatric hospital. They pay a visit to Dr. Pendleton (Calvin Butler) to make the arrangements.

The unsuspecting doctor tells Samantha her condition does not look as bad as it was written about in a report he was given. Although Stryker says that Audra has been shelved temporarily, Dr. Pendleton tells Samantha he sees no reason why she can't be back in front of the camera in no time.

In an attempt to please the gods of realism, Samantha leaps up and tries to stab Stryker with a letter opener. She is immediately restrained and put into a strait jacket. "I see what you mean," Dr. Pendleton says to Stryker.

The director asks to speak to the patient alone and the two enjoy a good laugh. "Audra herself couldn't have done it better!" he tells her. Although he's apprehensive about having her committed, Samantha says it's all for the good of "research."

She's placed in the institution but soon starts to feel uneasy about her decision. Stryker pays her a visit and tells her the doctor says she's doing well. "Crazier than ever. That's what you wanted, isn't it?" she asks

Soon, Samantha has trouble sleeping. She's constantly awakaned by the screaming of other patients. One day, she's delighted to see herself on the televison in the recreation room. When the other inmates recognize her, their reactions make her uncomfortable.

During another visit, Stryker notices a change in Samantha. She's becoming all too convincing and he tells her to save her energy for the film. Finally, he realizes she may have gone off the deep end herself and he decides to leave her in the asylum indefinitely. Samantha reads in an issue of Variety that her "friend" is moving ahead with the Audra project.

One of the contenders for the lead is Patti O'Connor (Lynne Griffin), a stand-up comedienne. During a nightclub routine, she tells the audience about the upcoming tryout at Stryker's house. "Six actresses going to the same house to auditon for the same part. Sounds like a lot of fun if you like bloodbaths," she jokes.

Another actress desperate for the part is Brooke Parsons (Linda Thorson). She's furious and humiliated that she must audition, telling her agent Monty (Maury Chaykin), "who does he think he is? Who does he think I am?"

Monty concedes that Stryker has "strange ways" but it's worth it. He pretends to know that she is actually his first choice. "It's you, cuckoo head!" he screams over the phone.

He tells Brooke she'd be perfect for the role, especially now that Samantha Sherwood has pulled out because of "health problems." The acting offers haven't exactly been pouring in and she agrees to go through with it.

With the help of a friend, Samantha escapes. Somehow, she has managed to acquire 8X10s of each of the actresses vying for the coveted role of Audra.

One by one, she throws them into her fireplace. When her friend reminds Sam she helped get her out because she pitied her, Sam says "Stryker is the one you should feel sorry for. This time he's gone too far."

A third woman up for the part is Amanda Teuther (Deborah Burgess), who contemplates the upcoming audition by enjoying a glass of wine while taking a relaxing bath. She lives with her boyfriend Peter (Booth Savage), who likes to play kinky games with her. (Like pretending to be a rapist intruder.) The night before she's set to leave for Stryker's home, she has a nightmare.

She dreams that she is driving to the secluded house on a rainy day. The road is deserted and she stops when she sees something up ahead. She gets out of her car and walks over to see what it is. It's the doll she keeps in her bedroom and when she picks it up, it grabs her and sticks its nails into her arm.

As she's struggling to break free, someone sneaks into her car and runs her over. Amanda wakes up and calls for Peter. He's not around, so she gets up out of bed to look for him. Suddenly, someone wearing an old-hag mask grabs her and stabs her repeatedly. After killing her, the stranger grabs Amanda's doll and leaves.

The other women make their way to the director's house. Laurian Summers (Ann Ditchburn) is a dancer who remembers reading the Audra book when she was a little girl, Christie Burns (Lesleh Donaldson), a demure and insecure figure skater who dabbles in acting.

Patti stops at a gas station to get her tank filled before she makes her way up the hill to Stryker's house. When she arrives, she joins Christie, Laurian, Brooke and another woman, a musician named Tara DeMillo (Sandee Currie). Together, they wait for the director in his dining room.

Tara looks over at Brooke and recognizes the famouse actress. She asks her what she's doing there and Brooke says she'd "kill for the part." Tara's retort is that she'd "fuck for it." Stryker appears and greets everyone.

He tells Brooke he's long admired her work and tells Tara he's looking forward to hearing her perform. He takes note of Amanda's absence and introduces the women to his assistant Mathew (Michael Wincott), before announcing that one of them will be his Audra.

As he's talking, Samantha shows up unannounced. She makes a comment about all the actresses looking alike and asks Stryker "is this your idea of a casting session?"

Later, she watches from her bedroom window as Tara enjoys a naked romp outside with Mathew in the snowy jacuzzi.

Stryker stops by her room and asks her why she's there. Samantha, in turn, tells him he had no right to bring the other women to his house. After all, she reasons, she bought the rights to the project for him. He says he's grateful but the part is no longer hers.

To pass some time, Patti smokes a joint and puts on a puppet show for Brooke. Christie comes around looking for her skates and tells them she usually gets up at dawn to practice. The girl is young and naive and the two older women gently make fun of her.

When she leaves, Brooke wonders what she's doing there because "she's just a baby." Patti admits she's nervous about the audition and Brooke tells her she's "scared to death" as well. "It never gets easier," she adds.

Christie walks by Samantha's room and overhears a heated arguement between her and Stryker. The director threatens to send his former favorite actress back to the asylum.

Just then, he opens the door and Christie is busted. "I was just passing by and I heard voices," she says. Stryker tells her they were just performing a scene from a play he wrote many years ago ("a very BAD play," adds Samantha). Christie believes it and is escorted to her room by Stryker, as Brooke watches.

When she's alone, Samantha takes some pills to calm her nerves. Meanwhile, an unseen figure is sharpening a scythe. Stryker sleeps with Christie and Samantha sees him leave the girl's room. Christie is in tears as she wonders if what she just did is worth the part in the film.

The next morning, she goes out with her skates to practice on the frozen pond. It's a beautiful cold and sunny day. There isn't a soul in sight, or so she thinks.

The young novice brings along a radio and plays her music as she gracefully skates on the ice. After about a minute, the music abruptly stops. When Christie goes over to see what happened and to check the batteries, she finds Amanda's doll buried in the snow. Puzzled, she pulls it out to take a closer look at it.

Suddenly she hears someone on the ice. A person wearing black is coming towards her. It's the killer in the old-hag mask, brandishing the scythe. Christie is horrified and tries to makes a run for it. She slips and the hag strikes her in the shoulder.

Christie manages to knock her attacker down with the doll. She tries to make it back to the house but is dazed and in pain from her injury. While leaning against a tree, the killer grabs her from behind and strikes her in the neck with the scythe.

Stryker assembles the actresses in a room for their auditions. One of them asks about Christie's whereabouts and the director tells them she's gone and that she left a note behind saying she couldn't handle the pressure. "And then there were four," he remarks. He's about to test Brooke when Samantha walks in.

She says she wants to act and Stryker tells her to take centerstage. What Samantha doesn't know is that he has something cruel up his sleeve.

He tells her to make herself ugly and throws the hag mask at her (it's one of his props). She puts it on and is then told to seduce him. Finally, Stryker rips the mask off and holds her face up to a mirror. "This is a mask too," he tells her bitterly.

Later, Stryker meets with Patti alone in the parlor. She tries to be funny but he cancels her audition, believing she's not right for the part. She yells at him and implies that perhaps she should have slept with him to get it. The director ignores her and goes back upstairs.

He enters Samantha's room and accuses her of stealing his mask. "What the hell are you up to?" he demands to know. She denies being up to anything and instead tells him that he's brought five totally different girls there on a "bogus casting session" for a part that was hers in the first place.

For the next audition, Stryker has Laurian pretend to be a man seducing Tara, a situation which makes both women uncomfortable. Brooke takes a break from studying the script to paint her nails in the bathroom adjacent to her room.

A drop of polish falls on the toilet seat cover. After cleaning it off, she lifts up the cover to throw away the tissue paper and is horrified to discover Christie's decapitated head.

She screams and runs into the room where Stryker is testing the Audra wannabes. In tears, she tells the director that Christie is dead. "You're imagining things," he says to her. He then tells Laurian and Tara that they will continue later and takes Brooke back to her room.

When he lifts the toilet cover in the bathroom, there's nothing there. To comfort her, he sleeps with her and Samantha finds them in bed together. Samantha goes back to her room and throws the script through a window, smashing it.

In the kitchen, Tara has a discussion with Patti, who attributes Brooke's hysterics to her heavy drinking and implies that she's acting crazy to get the part. Tara mentions some of the odd things that have happened, including the fact that Amanda never arrived and that Mathew has disappeared. She says it's all making her scared.

Laurian is alone practicing her dancing. The killer, wearing black gloves, enters the practice room and slits her throat.

The killer then enters Brooke's room and shoots her and Stryker, causing them to fall out the second story window. Tara, who's been browsing through some books, overhears the gun shots and screams when the bodies shatter the windows of the library room.

She runs outside and tries to start her car, but of course, she has no luck. She then sees Mathew's body lying face down in the jacuzzi with a knife in his back. Next, she goes into the prop house where she is not alone. The killer in the hag-mask is sitting in the backseat of a prop taxicab.

While Tara tries to find a way out again, the killer leaps up to attack her. But Tara moves out of the way and the "hag" trips. Thinking quickly, Tara takes off her coat and hat and puts them on a mannequin. The killer tries to stab her but realizes it was a trick and falls on the ground. Tara tries to take the mask off, but the killer recovers and attempts to strangle her.

Again, Tara escapes, only to run into Laurian's body hanging among the props. She finally finds a vent to hide in. For a moment, it seems to work. The killer walks by and doesn't detect her. When the coast is clear, Tara starts to crawl out, but is grabbed by her legs from the other side of the vent! The sickly sound of someone being mutilated is echoed through the prop house.

There are only two survivors now. Patti celebrates by opening up a bottle of champagne in the kitchen. She's joined by Samantha and the two share a drink. Samantha tells Patti the story of how Stryker had her committed. When Patti wonders where he is, Samantha reveals that she killed him.

However, there's something odd about Patti's behavior. She comes towards Samantha holding a huge butcher knife. As Samantha screams, Patti stabs her in the stomach. In the final shot, the comedienne is finally performing Audra...to an audience made up of the other patients in an asylum.

The Canadian production was shot in and around Muskoka and Toronto, Ontario. With constant reshoots and the producer unhappy with the director's work, the film took well over a year to complete and wasn't released until March 1983.

Actress Celine Lomez was originally set to play Brooke, the part that eventually went to Linda Thorson. After some scenes were filmed with Lomez as Brooke, the role was recast and new scenes were reshot with Thorson.

Hunter: I love Canadian horror films that use settings like this one: an old country estate surrounded by snow. It's a wonderful combination of low-key scares mixed in with a sleepy backdrop.

There are a couple of really frightening moments, including Amanda's dream with the doll and her subsequent murder, and especially the old hag on skates scene...a sequence that alone makes Curtains worth seeing.

The rink scene is all the more remarkable because it takes place in the glaring light of morning. Lesleh Donaldson, one of my favorite scream queens from that era, is great as Christie and the scene is one of my favorites in the genre.

The prolonged chase in the prop house is also terrifically shot. Producer Peter Simpson did an excellent job in terms of building and sustaining suspense.

I don't understand what all the carping is about. Some people seem to suggest that the plagued production resulted in a confusing plotline with a killer out of left field. Hogwash. Perhaps these folks haven't been to a horror movie in recent years. Talk about convoluted dreck...

Jason: Having become something of a revered classic in my mind, Curtains remains a favorite of mine. I really like the wintry country house, frozen lake, snowy nights...Between the images of the creepy girl doll, the "calling card" of the murderer, and the hag on the ice skating rink, I think this is a fun little slasher. I definitely think this one is underrated.

If you don't think the slow-motion shot of the hag with a raised scythe ice-skating after the girl is a frightening setup, then take a few steps back and start over again!