Curtain, 2015.
Directed by Jaron Henrie-McCrea.
Starring Danni Smith, Tim Lueke, Rick Zahn and Martin Monahan.
SYNOPSIS:
A young woman buys an apartment and discovers a portal to another dimension that likes eating shower curtains. No, really…
Otherwise known as The Gateway, Curtain is an odd little movie that clearly has some big ideas lurking somewhere deep within it but unfortunately director Jaron Henrie-McCrea just doesn’t have the resources to bring it out.
Ex-nurse-turned-eco-warrior Danni (Danni Smith) moves into a small apartment, unaware that the previous inhabitant slit his own throat in the bathroom. Whilst trying to tart the place up a bit she buys a shower curtain and hangs it up in its rightful place, only when she walks back into the bathroom the curtain is gone. Puzzled, she buys another one and the same thing happens again so she buys a third and sets up a camera to film what is happening.
What is happening is that the shower curtains are being sucked into the wall and disappearing so Danni and her eco-friendly colleague Tim (Tim Leuke) investigate where the curtains have been going but who are the mysterious people who keep appearing to warn Danni of the consequences of her actions?
And it’s a question that will remain unanswered for the most part, as does nearly everything in Curtain because it is a film that sets up so many possibilities and doesn’t come through on any of them, leaving you knowing possibly even less than you thought you did before the film started. It is a little unfair to totally slate this film because there are a few ideas at work here but the very noticeable budget restrictions seem to hit every aspect of the film and not just the special effects, which are quite charming in a 1980s straight-to-video kind of way, and a bit more development and some better actors may have proved to be more beneficial.
One of the great things about quirky horror movies is that you don’t always need every plot thread tying up and you just have to accept that some things just are; take a look at the likes of Suspiria or The Beyond, movies that don’t make a lick of sense but they don’t really have to as they have that dream-like quality to them that presents their horrors in a less linear, but still satisfying, way. Curtain would like to reach those same giddy heights, and given the right circumstances it is entirely likely that Jaron Henrie-McCrea could make such a movie as he clearly has passion for them, but on this occasion it just lacks anything approaching an atmosphere, a coherent plot or likeable characters. You can see the potential and what Henrie-McCrea was trying to do but unfortunately Curtain doesn’t do enough to make the mysteries beyond seem worth bothering with.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Chris Ward
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
