Samantha Sherwood

"You abandoned me!"

- Samantha confronting Stryker

Samantha Sherwood is the main character of the 1983 slasher film Curtains. She is portrayed by Samantha Eggar.

Curtains
Samantha, an actress and muse to film-director Jonathan Stryker is quoting lines for a role in a movie that she is starring in. She will be playing a mentally unstable, and rather demented woman named "Audra." Stryker tells her that she doesn't know enough about what this type of woman would feel, and suggests an idea on how she can learn.

The film then cuts to Samantha and Jonathan at an insane asylum, where Samantha malingers violent behavior, causing orderlies to put her in a straitjacket. She and Jonathan laugh about how easy that was, and she begins paying attention to her new surroundings to better understand an insane woman's circumstances.

Eventually, Stryker gets impatient by how long her "treatments" are taking, and begins auditioning for new actresses to play Audra. When Samantha learns of this, she escapes the asylum to get revenge.

Stryker has taken an unorthodox approach to how he will decide who should play Audra: He invites six aspiring actresses (Amanda, Tara, Patti, Brooke, Laurian, and Christie) to his mansion to observe their behaviors.

Samantha crashes the "party" and makes the situation as awkward as possible for Stryker and his assistant Matthew. Later that night, Samantha confronts Stryker and yells at him for leaving her in the asylum, to which he threatens to return her to if she doesn't shut up. Stryker finds Christie eavesdropping at the door, and they tell her that they were acting out a new movie to keep her from thinking something suspicious is going on, although she does still have suspicions.

The next morning, Christie goes missing and Stryker receives a note from her saying she left because she couldn't take the pressure. Samantha doesn't blame her for leaving, believing this whole thing to have been a bad idea. Later that night, Samantha is oblivious to the chaos occurring elsewhere in the house, but walks in on Stryker having sex with Brooke, who Stryker had taken advantage of because she was terrified from finding Christie dead earlier that day, much to everyone else's disbelief.

This finally pushes Samantha to a breaking point, and she picks up a revolver and guns down Stryker and Brooke. Their bodies fall through a nearby window and land in the same room as Tara. Tara's attempts to call for help, and escape the mansion are both thwarted by the heavy snowstorm that had occurred the previous night. Tara is pursued by a figure in a hag mask, who ultimately kills her after a long chase.

Samantha is next seen drinking a bottle of champagne with Patti. Samantha guiltlessly explains to Patti that she killed Jonathan for being a philanderer, and that she won't hurt Patti, or any of the other actresses. Patti then explains that that won't be necessary because she's already killed everyone, and that she and Samantha are the only two people still alive in the mansion. Patti then stabs Samantha to death with a kitchen knife.