Vinegar Syndrome: Curfew (1989) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome

Years before helping such romcom fare as Tadpole, 13 Going on 30 and the 2006 remake of Charlotte’s Web, like most other big Hollywood players producer-director Gary Winick got his start in the horror genre with the 1989 New World Pictures thriller Curfew.  Originally given a meager theater run before languishing in VHS Hell, the formerly forgotten riff on Cape Fear by way of The Desperate Hours now comes restored in 2K and released on blu-ray disc for the first time by Vinegar Syndrome.  While far from the caliber of those films or of the genre which its director eventually came to be known, it comes to viewers now as a taut little underrated gem of prison escapee home invasion revenge horror prominently starring none other than Halloween and The Watcher in the Woods scream queen Kyle Richards.

 
Brother serial-murderers on death row Ray (Wendell Wellman from Sudden Impact) and Bob Perkins (John Putch from Jaws 3-D) have just broken out of jail on a path of vengeance against key witnesses, the judge and eventually the prosecuting attorney Walter Davenport (Frank Miller) and his wife Megan (Jean Brooks).  After murdering the witnesses and Judge Collins (Douglas Robinson), they set their sights on the attorney’s family not knowing their young daughter Stephanie (Kyle Richards) is out with her jock boyfriend John (Peter Nelson) and is set to return home soon.  Interrupting and complicating their plans to torture and murder her parents, the three are locked in their basement by the Perkins brothers, setting in motion a cat-and-mouse game of escape, survival, madness and murder.

 
A rough, gritty little number which originally was rejected outright by the BBFC in 1988 for its scenes of brutal murder with numerous blood-soaked violent deaths onscreen, Curfew joins other grungy like-minded home-invasion survival horror thrillers as Siege, Scream for Help or even Deadly Games.  Ordinary individuals in their safe zones find themselves besieged by dangerous criminals who have already murdered many in their wake and are forced to either kill to survive or be killed.  At times the film leans towards sadism but mostly you’re rooting for the film’s plucky heroine to think her way out of this scenario including but not limited to warming up to the dumber brother Bob’s libido for distraction.  Interspersed throughout are cutaways to other high-school jock friends of John’s who descend upon the home looking for Stephanie only to meet grisly ends at the hands of the two escapees.

 
Lensed largely in soft nighttime hues, incredibly by Japanese The Man Who Stole the Sun cameraman Makoto Watanabe of all people, Curfew has a modestly appealing look largely taking place in shadow if not the dark and Turkish Deadly Manor composer Cengiz Yaltkaya’s serviceable score sets just the right tone for this pressure cooking little chamber piece.  Though featuring a number of notable character actors including Robert Altman actor Bert Remsen, Fast Times at Ridgemont High star Robert Romanus and The Last Starfighter actress Peggy Pope, Curfew largely boils down to three main characters.  Kyle Richards is a natural born scream queen going back to her childhood as a little girl fleeing Michael Myers and is able to hold her own here against the intimidating and dangerous Wendell Wellman and his psychotic yet dumb stooge brother played by The Father and the Bear director John Putch.  Nothing amazing in the acting department and not really anything we haven’t seen before but Wellman and Putch have fun playing sociopaths.

 
Given a limited theatrical window before being tarred, feathered and burned at the stake by those who first dealt with it, Curfew didn’t and still doesn’t go over well among horror fans but thanks to Vinegar Syndrome the starting point of director Gary Winick now has a chance for a second life and/or rediscovery among genre fans.  Those keen on Halloween lore will enjoy the connections Kyle Richards brings to the production while fans of the home invasion thriller will get some solid entertainment value out of it.  While the Cape Fear concept of convicts or ex-cons coming back to haunt those who put them behind bars isn’t exactly new or given that much of an innovative jolt here, the film’s nasty factor, scream queen links and thick aura of tension all largely work together to deliver a solid two hours at the horror movies.  Vinegar Syndrome’s release is strong while fans of the home-invasion thriller have another taut and tense entry to add to their growing watchlists.

--Andrew Kotwicki