When you were a teenager, Curfew struck fear in your heart. You are finally getting a little sense of freedom to go off without your parents hovering over you. You could hang with your friends and there was only one condition – you had to be home at a designated time. What happens if you were late? The punishments could vary. Some parents would ground a kid for the next week. Other kids lived in fear of losing access to the family station wagon. The most horrifying fear was that your parents would come and get you in front of your friends. Talk about uncool. Curfew plays a bit into this fear except in this case, getting home by curfew is not a good thing.
Stephanie Davenport (Halloween & The Car‘s Kyle Richards) is eager to get out of the house for nighttime fun with her friends. Her dad gives her a curfew of 10 p.m. to be back in the house because he doesn’t want her to get into trouble. What he doesn’t know is that trouble is going to be showing up at his house before Stephanie is supposed to return. Soon as she’s away from the house, Stephanie sheds her sweet girl clothes to wear a short skirt. She’s ready to party with her quarterback boyfriend at the local diner that’s run by Robert Romanus (Damone from Fast Times at Ridgemont High). The kids do their best to tease the local cop (Peter Brady from The Brady Bunch‘s Christopher Knight). Those kids are having “goofy” fun. Little do they know that a pair of their old friends are having serious business. The Perkins brothers have returned home and they’re settling scores. Richard (Wendell Wellman) and Bob (John Putch) are on death row for their murder spree. They escape and return home with a list of people that they’re going to put to death. This list includes Stephanie’s dad since he was the district attorney. When Stephanie gets home, she finds dad in the middle of being punished. How bad are things going to get for her because she had to be a good girl?
Curfew is the perfect example of a film doing its best on a low budget without making excuses. Viewers might have to an issue for a split second. The first head scratcher is how Richard and Bob escape. For two guys on death row, why are they allowed outside the prison walls seems extremely questionable. It makes sense in that the producers didn’t have to rent a prison, hire a bunch of extras to fill the cells and hold guns as guards. Who needs that when they just need one guard and his gun? The scene does have impact when it happens, so you forget to question why this happened in the first place. You will be taken back by Christopher Knight battling a cigar. I’ve been told that it’s always good to give an actor something to do with their hands, but Knight seems befuddled by the unlit cigar his cop character is given. He waggles it like he was doing a Groucho Marx impersonation on the Brady Bunch Variety Hours. Even stranger is his cop’s reaction to being shot. He doesn’t wince in pain after taking a bullet. It’s almost like the director asked him to play the character as if Peter Brady was performing him in a school play during season 2. The good part is you will stop laughing when the Perkins boys are on the screen. Wellman and Putch get deep into the sadistic nature of their characters. They are brutal in their night of revenge on the people who justifiably sentenced them to death. And shortcomings in the plot are easily forgotten when they knock on another victim’s door.
For those curious: Kyle Richards is the same Kyle Richards that’s on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills with her sister Kim Richards. She’s Paris Hilton’s aunt.
Curfew is best watched after 10 p.m. when everyone is home.
The video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. You’ll see clearly Christopher Knight and his cigar. The audio is DTS-HD MA Stereo. You’ll hear the clock ticking as curfew time gets near. The movie is subtitled.
Mind Games (17:58) interviews actor Wendell Wellman about playing Ray Perkins. He got into acting while taking classes at UCLA. He had an issue getting acting work, but found himself writing Clint Eastwood’s Firefox and helped out script doctoring on Sudden Impact. Clint paid Wendell back with a two-script deal at Warner Brothers. He finally got into acting with Curfew. Even though it was a low budget film, he was eager for the chance to be a lead. Best part is when he says Lee Marvin told him, “The bad guy drives the bus.”
Still Scary (13:36) catches up with editor Carole Kravetz Aykanian. She was at AFI with director Gary Winick. Many of their classmates were part of the project and they knew they were making a genre film. She talks about the challenge of making the film create fear and suspense. During editing, they had to deal with an earthquake. She points out that Winick passed away in 2011 from brain cancer. In his short career, he also made Tadpole, 13 Going on 30 and Charlotte’s Web. Carole has gone on to edit such classics as One False Move, Ghost World, The Matador and numerous TV shows. She is grateful for Gary asking her to cut Curfew.
Original Trailer (1:35) promises that tonight their perfect world is turning into an all too real nightmare.
Vinegar Syndrome presents Curfew. Directed by Gary Winick. Screenplay by Kevin Kennedy. Starring: Kyle Richards, Wendell Wellman, John Putch, Frank Miller, Jean Brooks, Peter Nelson, Niels Mueller, Nori Morgan, Peggy Rae, Christopher Knight, Robert Romanus & Peggy Pope. Running Time: 86 minutes. Rating: Rated R. Release Date: February 22, 2022.
