Moody, snowy, and stylish in flashes, but overall just an okay early 80s slasher with a couple standout moments holding up the whole show. The ice-skating kill is gorgeous eerie mask, frozen lake tension but you can really feel the era’s limitations when the decapitation cuts away right as it’s about to get gnarly. Very “almost an all timer.” The rest of the kills hit that same middle lane: creative setups, soft landings. Even the classic head-in-the-toilet gag gets a laugh more than a chill. You can sense the production drama in the seams reshoots, tonal shifts, and scenes that feel stitched together from different versions of the movie. Still, the mask is creepy, the winter atmosphere is strong, and it scratches that “obscure slasher checklist” itch. Just not one you’ll rush back to.

There were a couple well-filmed and genuinely creepy scenes alongside some terrible cheese and a slow moving storyline. I would consider this more of a suspense movie than a slasher. Giving it a 4 is being generous, but there was a uniquely enjoyable atmosphere at times.

Stumbled across this one on another of those curated lists. I had reservations about it but in all honesty, it wasn't all that bad for a movie from the 1960's... except this one was done in 1983. It was that bad, ladies and germs. It had all the earmarks, the drama, the intrigue, the Oscar-winning performance that you would expect from a low-budget (I have no idea what the budget actually was, but this film was low-budget performance, for sure), little-heard-of film. There was nothing to enjoy about this one. You might see (as I did, in the aforementioned curated list) some blurbs here and there about the "ice skating murder".... Trust me, you won't miss it. This was made in 1983, so the teen horror flicks were already out and about: _Friday the 13th_ , _Nightmare on Elm Street_ , etc. This thing acted like showing any type of violence was still taboo in motion pictures and the "ice skating murder" was laughable. In addition to incredibly underperformed acting, the lighting throughout was simply awful: too dark to really make out anything that was going on for almost the entire duration of the film. The storyline was so thin you could spit through it and never get it wet, and the ending?... I'm still scratching my head over what happened. In fact, the final ... I would say at least the final 20 (if not 30) minutes of the movie are so rushed and discordant that I watched it twice trying to figure out who did what, where, how, and I guess I'll never know WHY. While the name Brian de Palma garners some attention, this atrocity does not. Do yourself a favor and spend this 90 minutes in a far more productive way. This was just bad.

An '80s slasher movie I never heard of? How can that be? Oh, I get it. It's, uh, not very good. I only found _Curtains_ because I love horror movies set during winter, particularly when there is snow. While there are several great qualities here, the movie overall just falls flat. Where to begin? I think it's important to understand that, much like other slashers from the era, this is a whodunit; trouble is, all of the girls look alike, so I was never sure who was dead and who wasn't. What the movie gets right is the score, the lighting, the overall atmosphere, and the tension. _Curtains_ has a very slow build, but that's fine, because it does a magnificent job of becoming claustrophobic and interesting as the bodycount raises. I thought I was going to like this, but the ending just comes out of nowhere, and there was a plot hole so big, I thought a scene was missing or I blacked out. Really just lazy writing. I mean, most slasher movies rest on the explanation being "crazy though." But this? Come on! All that will stick with me about _Curtains_ is the killer's mask - truly creepy. That and how well the cold, dark environment was captured on film. If you love old slasher movies - e.g., _Black Christmas_ (1974), _Friday the 13th_ (1980), _My Bloody Valentine_ (1981) - I'd still recommend this. Just know that it hits different than those. That is to say, it feels as if they wanted to make a psychological horror movie, but wanted to cash in on the slasher boom.

Slasher. Some think it's underrated but I didn't like it at all. I found it too boring. Maybe for more slasher orientated fans.