Alice, Sweet Alice – Review

Church bells dole out the hour as children get out of parish school classes for the day. Karen Spages’ (Shields) communion is soon, and she knows she has a present waiting for her. She hopes for Father Tom (Willrich) to come through with something more than cookies, sitting with her mother Catherine (Miller) at the table while her sister Alice (Sheppard) puts on a creepy mask and terrorizes the shit out of Mrs. Tredoni (Clinton), the housekeeper. Eventually, she heads back to see her sister receive a pretty crucifix necklace.

Alice in her favorite yellow jacket starts losing it from jealousy, so she steals Karen’s doll and runs off, her sister (also in a yellow jacket) takes off after her through the streets. Alice mentally tortures Karen and sends her running home. What a gal.

The charming self-centered egotistical maniac child Alice fixates on needing all attention at all time, ruining more and more of her sister’s things. As communion day hits for Karen, so does an utterly horrific murder. A figure in a creepy porcelain mask and yellow jacket commits an unspeakable act, setting off a chain of horrible events.

Alice sneaks up to take communion in Karen’s place, looking for a center stage, however the day is ruined by the previously mentioned act as it is discovered. What comes next is a murder mystery infused with horror and treachery. Is the little shit terror of a human being Alice hiding something about that day? What else is going on as other characters face danger?

Alice, Sweet Alice is very unsettling and super creepy at times. The film deals with horrific crimes and their psychological outcomes as well as featuring religious themes and bringing in a study of human behavior under stresses, while topping it all off with a police investigation of a mystery slasher killer.

Despite being made in the 70s, there is little camp and it is performed quite seriously by its cast. It deals with dark subject matter well and mostly realistically. The kids do a very good job with their challenging roles. Alice is quite a character to remember, and is impossible to enjoy as a human.

The film is decently complex all things considered, but probably should only be seen by horror and psychological terror enthusiasts. For me, this one was a pretty effective and solid 70s slasher, but comparing it to modern films it is definitely slower paced.

This film has three titles, however for the most part it’s just the same movie for all releases. Originally filmed as Communion, it was slightly altered to remove a tiny bit of violence for the theatrical release, titled Alice, Sweet Alice. Later, this same version was re-released as Holy Terror as an attempt to capitalize on Brooke Shields.