Michael_Elliott Alice Sweet Alice (1976) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Rather surreal horror film centers on 12-year-old Alice (Paula Sheppard) who is a strange girl who is suspected of murdering her younger and more popular sister Karen (Brooke Shields). Her parents believe that she is innocent but as more crimes start to happen everyone seems to think that perhaps she isn't so sweet.ALICE SWEET ALICE has become a huge cult film over the years and it's somewhat easy to see why. The film got a second chance of life after Brooke Shields became a star but in all honesty she's not in too much of the movie. I remember watching this film as a kid and really hating it because it wasn't bloody or violent enough but revisiting it after all of these has me respecting it a lot more.I think what works best is the fact that the entire film has a very bizarre atmosphere to it. I'm not sure if it's the religious aspect of the film, its low budget or what but there's no doubt that there is a very creepy vibe to the entire picture. The film is also remembered for some of the death scenes in the film. None of them are overly graphic but at the same time they are well-staged and pack a nice little punch. The twist in the story is something that I also thought worked very well.Performances are rather hit and miss but I thought Rudolph Willrich was good as Father Tom and I also liked Sheppard as the young Alice. Shields is pretty bad in some of her scenes but I guess we shouldn't be too hard on her. Alphonso DeNoble appears as the creepy landlord and there's no question that he steals the film because his character is just so creepy. Lillian Roth and Mildred Clinton are also good.What really kills the film is the fact that it has a made-for-TV look to it and there's no question that overall it looks quite cheap. I'd also argue that the pacing was a bit off and I do think the 102-minute running time was about ten-minutes too long. With that said, ALICE SWEET ALICE is still a rather unique film that is worth watching.

BA_Harrison After a young Catholic girl, Karen (Brooke Shields), is brutally murdered during communion, suspicion falls on her emotionally disturbed older sister Alice (Paula E. Sheppard).Director Alfred Sole's Alice Sweet Alice is the closest thing you will find to an American giallo: the death scenes are sudden and brutal, the score is haunting, the killer is distinctive in creepy plastic mask and yellow raincoat, and the film's overall atmosphere and aesthetic is redolent of many a Euro thriller/horror.Admittedly, the film falls short of the best work of maestros Argento and Bava, the motive for the killings a little weak, and the pacing a tad pedestrian, while the identity of the killer is revealed way too early for my liking (true giallos generally wait until the very end before letting the cat out of the bag), but Sole conducts matters with an assured hand, presenting some striking visuals, and his cast give solid performances (with the exception of Jane Lowry as Alice's Aunt Annie, whose histrionics are waaaayy OTT).6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for Alphonso DeNoble as morbidly obese, cat-loving pervert Mr. Alphonso, who is wonderfully grotesque.

GL84 Following her daughter's death, a mother's guilt and Catholic repression keeps her from admitting that her jealous and emotional older daughter is responsible even when a similar killing spree strikes the neighborhood forcing them to deal with their issues.This one here wasn't all that bad of a slasher effort even though it is somewhat overrated. What this one really does get right is the rather domineering and oppressive tone featured here, with the film so heavily steeped in Catholicism and repentance that it works incredibly well at generating a great atmosphere throughout here. Not only is there a depiction of Christ or a cross fixed prominently in just about every sequence here, sometimes both together in pictures, paintings or statues but the whole film revolves around the jealousy depicted towards the First Holy Communion as that sets the whole film in motion. Likewise, the inability of the characters to recognize or accept any kind of wrongful, sinful behavior on her part since she's clearly crazy yet being unable to admit it doesn't come across as necessary here because of the conditioning not to accept that possible reasoning. That tends to get played out nicely in the first half here as the different investigations into her behavior only to keep getting caught up in the religious drama that occurs in here as they try everything they can to pin it on her only to find themselves stumbled by the insistence nothing out of the ordinary was occurring and that their issues all play a major part of the investigation holding itself back. Alongside that, the film's few slasher scenes aren't all that bad either with the fact that there's the chilling taboo-breaking opening attack in the church confessional where the death of a child is the prime factor here in setting this forward, the great ambush at the warehouse where he follows the masked killer into the abandoned building and leads into a fine brawl into the big battle to the ending confrontation in the church.This also manages to touch upon normal giallo motifs where the gloved killer requires a single killing device, the middle segment of the film trying to play detective for an incredibly brutal crime that takes place at the beginning of the film and several other little touches from the genre. This here is all added together into a nicely influential film that does have some really good things about it. This one here simply feels overrated than what it should. The biggest reason here is this is simply so slow going with the first murder so long into the film which manages to handle just about all of the first part of the film. The fact that the next ones come way into the second half leaves a lot of time in between the segments where nothing happens and it becomes a drag to sit through. That there is the major reason for this one to feel as it does, since this forces time away to devote to it when it doesn't need the terms as it's already been expertly given. The fact that there's also way too much time devoted to the red herring suspect that it starts to get boring after a while. There's way too much built up into a completely improbable idea that it just becomes aggravating when it introduces yet another piece of evidence that throws more fire towards the obvious red herring. All these things are responsible for it's overrated feeling.Rated R: Violence, Language, nude pin-ups, violence-against-animals and children in jeopardy.

Roman James Hoffman Alice Spages is a 12 year old girl who is hating every minute of it. Her parents are divorced and she lives with her mother and little sister, Karen (Brooke Shields in her first screen appearance), who gets all of the attention at home. In addition, her overbearing aunt is hostile towards her and the landlord is a sleazy character indeed. So it's no wonder the girl has some problems…but could she really be the one behind the creepy plastic mask and yellow raincoat who is responsible for strangling Karen to death, putting her body in a casket, and burning it on the day of her first communion? Set up established, it quickly becomes clear as you watch the movie whether or not this is the case but this lack of suspense don't affect the movie in any way as the film has many other things going for it. Firstly, if we're talking about a slasher we need to ask about the kills: and kills, although not excessively gory in a Tom Savini way, don't disappoint in having have a fair amount of blood and gain something from lingering on the action a little longer than usual before cutting away. The film also pays homage to Nic Roeg's masterful psychic thriller 'Don't Look Now' (1973) in the use of a diminutive killer stalking our peripheral vision clothed in a striking raincoat, red in Roeg's film but yellow here. In addition, the film has an eerie score which complements the movie well and good performances from the cast, especially from Linda Miller who plays Alice's mother Catherine, and Paula Sheppard, who plays Alice herself.However, the overriding characteristic of the movie is the claustrophobic air of morbidity that comes from the lashings of Catholic iconography employed throughout the film and in far from sympathetic tones. Indeed, it wouldn't be far-fetched to call the film anti-Catholic as it not only provides the film with its emotional backdrop of repression and morbidity but is also used explicitly as motivations for the characters as the film progresses. In this way the film plays effectively as a counter-point to 'The Exorcist', released three years earlier, as both films present little girls on the cusp of puberty, living with their divorced mothers, as somehow threatening or evil. However, whereas the demonic excesses of 'The Exorcist' are regarded by many to be Catholic propaganda designed to get people back to church for fear that disbelief would permit evil to enter this realm, in total contrast 'Alice, Sweet Alice' suggests it is the mechanics of devout belief inherent in the Church which are evil. In this way, 'Alice Sweet Alice' is the far more subversive movie. Plus, an interesting coincidence is that Linda Miller is the wife of none other than Jason Miller…who played Father Karras in 'The Exorcist'!Still, despite the movie's well thought out universe and cinematic literacy, 'Don't Look Now' and 'The Exorcist' are still "better" movies in my opinion. Why? Hard to say, but possibly that these two movies engage on a wider level whereas 'Alice Sweet Alice' seems like a highly-polished rant from someone who hates the church which, while hard to disagree with, seems to lack a certain distance…plus the final scene is a little hokey. Still, this is nit-picking, the movie deserves far more recognition than it has received as it remains as chilling and relevant today as 40 years ago.