CURTAINS
What a great setup, but man, it slides...
I knew there was something wrong with this movie when they introduced a demure figure skater. Having worked at an ice rink as a teenager, lemme tell you, there's no such thing.
What a great setup this movie has. I mean, I was damn near giddy. This film director's favorite actress is locked up in an institution in preparation for playing Audra, the role of a madwoman in a highly anticipated film. When she gets out, she's displeased to find that the director has convinced six other would-be actresses to audition for the part at his isolated, snowed-in home. (well, one of them doesn't make it, if you know what I mean, so we've got the figure skater, a dancer, a model, a standup comedian, and a bitchy "serious actress" all vying for the part alongside the other one) The first scenes of her life in the institution are really good as she starts to fear that it's actually making her like the rest of the loonies in there.
My grin was huge, huge I tell you! Backstabbing! Bitchiness raised to the nth degree! The Casting Couch! All this mixed in somehow with somebody knocking 'em off in an Old Hag mask! Whee!
Sadly, though, after about 30 minutes, it degenerates into lame, run-of-the-mill slasher material, with all the would-be actresses getting killed, with little of the fun I'd hoped for. Oh sure, the director shags no less than three of the actresses, one of the women is nice and bitchy...but the only backstabbing to be found is, well, you figure it out.
The biggest problems are in the characters. Aside from the absurdity of a timid figure skater, we're also given a standup comedian who doesn't get a single funny line. I mean, she seems sufficiently pleasant and charming, but not genuinely funny. The dancer doesn't get any lines at all (and neither does Michael Wincott, who makes a silent appearance in this film for some reason, but serves no function at all). The model is given two or three lines, but aside from a reasonably suspenseful chase though the prop-strewn basement of the house (do directors really keep all those props in their houses? Naah...), her screen time is minimal and frankly, it's sometimes hard to tell these women apart.
So there's only really three things to recommend this film for - the beginning, that chase through the maze-like prop room, and an icy-cool denoument. Other than that, it was sad to see that such a good idea was frittered away into a routine slasher flick. Even more sad to see how two of the suspects could already be eliminated, because the killer swings like a girl.