Life imitates art imitates life in this delirious giallo-inspired whodunnit with a scenic winter backdrop.

Includes live in-person post-screening Q&A with cast member Lynne Griffin.

A film director, Jonathan Stryker (John Vernon), encourages his muse, Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar), to commit herself to an asylum to research her next role. Stryker’s plan is to strand her there as he auditions younger women for the part, but Samantha escapes, crashes the audition at Stryker’s isolated mansion in the snowy woods, and competes with the other women, who include a musician, a ballet dancer, and a stand-up comedian (Lynne Griffin). This tense gathering soon becomes Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None–just add the horrors of the casting couch and ice skating with a sickle-wielding maniac.

Curtains is a film of many confounding layers—hoaxes, dreams, and other deceptions—that will make you question your own grip on reality. The black-gloved killer and decadent set design evoke savage and surreal gialli by the likes of Dario Argento, and the eccentric costumes and props enhance the film’s over-the-top theatricality while offering fine contenders for horror cinema’s creepiest doll and scariest mask.