Curtains
Genre: Horror
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Writer: Andrew Doster
Based on the 1983 film
Cast: Lake Bell, Gillian Jacobs, Simon Baker, Maggie Q, Betty Gilpin, Alexandra Breckenridge, Crystal Reed, Portia Doubleday, Billy Burke, Sofia Carson
Plot: Samantha Sherwood (Lake Bell) plays on stage playing a role while director Jonathan Stryker (Simon Baker) looks at her in the spotlight with a slightly bored air. Stryker then takes Samantha to a mental institution to intern her because of her mood swings. After the doctor mentions Samantha's placid calm, she attacks Stryker with a letter opener. The assistants run into the doctors' office and take her away in a straitjacket. Stryker asks for a moment alone with Samantha and they both seem very happy, he strokes her hair and she looks at him with a relaxed air and seems to almost admire him. From what the two say it seems that Samantha is a methodical actress and that Stryker suggested that the only way to play the crazy character of Audra in his next film called "Blood" is to stay in a madhouse so that Samantha can take a first look at what it means to be a person with psychiatric disorders. Samantha has been residing in the institute for some time with the passing of the weeks, which soon turn into months, as she is surrounded by disturbing and unstable residents. Stryker occasionally visits Samantha and is pleased to see her deteriorated state while her stay there is slowly dehumanizing her and therefore will make her right for the role. One day, however, Samantha reads the latest issue of Variety magazine and discovers that director Jonathan Stryker has started casting for the film "Blood". She is furious, tears the pages of the newspaper and begins to rail at everyone. Also, angry that Stryker has abandoned and replaced her, she escapes from the asylum that night and goes to Stryker's office where she finds the photos and the CV of the potential actresses. At this point, cut them into small pieces and throw them in the fire. Samantha manages to invite herself and hide from an old friend of hers and stays there for a few nights until Samantha goes off saying "For what I have to do won't take long."
Amanda (Sofia Carson), one of the hopeful auditions, has a sexual role play with her boyfriend and talks about the casting sessions. Later, Amanda is driving in the rain when she sees her strange doll in the middle of the street. He goes out to look at it and seems to grab it. Someone gets into Amanda's parked car and heads for her. Fortunately, it's just a dream while Amanda wakes up in her bed with her boyfriend by her side. As Amanda gets out of bed to look at her sleeping boyfriend, a person wearing a scary and ugly mask grabs her by the hair and stabs her to death with a chef's knife, then takes her doll sitting by the bed.
The next day, a group of very different actresses who hope to play the part of Audra arrive at Stryker's snowy home. The group of actresses finds themselves in a room and all the women present themselves in front of Stryker. I'm Patti (Gillian Jacobs), a comedienne-aspiring actress always telling jokes and who moonlights at a local comedy clubs telling stand-up jokes. Brooke (Betty Gilpin) is a veteran actress in the theater where she has been acting since she was a child, but she hopes to be able to move to the cinema. Tara (Maggie Q) is an attractive actress with Asian origins who hopes that this film will make her famous. Jen (Alexandra Breckenridge) is a little-known actress with a dark look and fire-red dyed hair and full of tattoos. Lauraine (Crystal Reed) is a shy and reserved dancer with an ability in ballet. Christie (Portia Doubleday) is an ice-staking figure queen hoping the roll will start her acting career. Stryker is with the actresses sitting around the table until she notices that one of them is missing. The strange worker, Matthew (Billy Burke), sits down with the women. Then she informs everyone that she mentions that Amanda is the young woman who is not present. We see, however, that someone is listening outside the door. Suddenly Samantha opens the door and sits down at the table with the other six actresses, which makes Stryker very uncomfortable. Meanwhile, she starts to look at the other girls, judging and despising them (for example, she makes fun of Patti saying that she doesn't make people laugh and Tara because she is Asian). Subsequently Stryker tries to calm her down and she does it enough.
Later that evening, Tara is out on the so-called "Jacuzzi casting" with Matthew moving over him. In the house, Stryker and Samantha are discussing Stryker's decision to have someone else Audra play. Christie walks, listens by the door and enters where Stryker tells her that he and Samantha were rehearsing a play that she wrote. He leads Christie out and into her room where he tries to move onto her. Outside the house, someone takes a scythe just as Stryker leaves Christie alone in her bed to weep over being forced upon. The next morning Christie goes out to the nearby frozen lake to skate to relax and clear her mind. The music of his boom box suddenly stops. Christie skates to the boom box and finds the strange doll buried under the snow. The masked killer is there on the ice and skates towards Christie with the scythe in his hand. The killer swings and Christie manages to dodge it and is only hit in the shoulder. Christie reacts and drops the killer onto the ice with the doll. The woman runs into the woods looking behind her but sees no one. The girl stops to rest near a tree but suddenly the killer grabs her from behind and kills her with blows in the back.Later that morning, Stryker is in a room with Patti, Tara, Lauriane, Jen and Brooke and when Samantha arrives saying that she wants to act and not be left out. Stryker has her sit in front of the others and he puts the same killer's mask onto her. He tells Samantha to seduce him without using words. "Make me love you", Stryker tells Samantha, who does not do anything. Stryker pulls off the mask and points to a mirror and tells Samantha that her face is a mask too.
Afterwards, Stryker talks to Patti who tells him a couple of jokes. He tells her that he doesn't think a casting session is necessary for her. Patti yells at him, claiming that she is as good as the other actresses. Stryker almost smiles and says that this is what he needs for the film. Afterwards everyone notices the disappearance of Christie and Matthew is seen riding on a snowmobile cart towards the woods to look for Christie. The unseen killer follows him. The killer also has a sack where Jen's fiery red hair sticks out and we understand that she was killed too. Later that evening, Stryker asks Samantha where the hag mask is located and Samantha replies that she doesn't know. Brooke, reading the script in her room, hears a noise and goes to the bathroom, where she discovers Christie's severed head in the toilet. He runs to a room where Stryker is working with Tara and Laurian. The director follows Brooke to his room, but his severed head is gone. Calm Brooke and the man embraces the woman while with her hands she caresses her back approaching her butt. In the meantime, Lauraine turned on the stereo and started dancing while someone is watching her. Shortly after that night, Samantha sees Stryker in bed with a sleeping Brooke by his side. Samantha has a decidedly angry face and goes away making noise. Styker and Brooke wake up and talk about the fact that Brooke was chosen for the role of Audra. As they speak, however, someone enters the room and fires a gun at them in which both of them fly out the window. Hearing the gunfire, Tara comes out where she sees Stryker and Brooke's corpses and starts screaming. He runs around the house looking for others. Find Laurian's body in his room and Matthew floating in the hot tub with a knife in his abdomen. Tara meets the masked killer and is chased around the house. The chase leads to the props warehouse near the house where Tara searches for a place to hide. Eventually Tara beats the masked killer twice, proving to be an excellent fighter. She draws the killer towards her to stab her coat allowing her to fight back, then beats the killer with a wooden stick, but every time the killer gets up and resumes pursuit. After hiding in an air vent, Tara crawls out when she thinks the killer has left the room. But she makes a sound where the killer runs back and kills her by cutting her to death with a scythe. Shortly thereafter, Samantha enters the kitchen where Patti is opening a bottle of champagne while singing. Samantha tells her about the institution in the asylum and how Stryker teased her and then abandoned her to look for younger talent for the role of Audra. Patti tells Samantha that she is celebrating because she will get the role, but is shocked by the news of Samantha who says she has just killed Stryker for his betrayal and Brooke who was there as his last female conquest. Samantha tells Patti to flee and go back to where she came from and assures Patti that he won't harm her or her friends. Suddenly, Patti with a diabolical grin smiles at Samantha and says: "I am the only one left" saying that she killed all the other actresses to have the role. Patti takes a butcher knife from the kitchen counter and stabs Samantha.
The final footage shows Patti that she is doing her comedy in the same asylum in which Samantha was committed in front of a group of residents, most of whom pay no attention to the deranged actress, who apparently is still happy to work still in the entertainment world as the character of Audra.
"This is exactly the sort of film that can benefit from LRF NOW to find an audience without requiring a wide release. It's an good ole fashioned cheesy slasher, with a cast and director that know exactly what type of film they are making - perfect for a Saturday night at home."
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