ALICE SWEET ALICE (Alfred Sole, 1976)

ALICE SWEET ALICE
(aka COMMUNION)
(aka HOLY TERROR)
Dir. Alfred Sole, 1976.
107 mins. USA.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 – 10:00 PM

“God always takes the pretty ones.”

Typifying a crucial point in the lineage of international horror is ALICE SWEET ALICE, a stylish and deeply unnerving American giallo that features a mask-wearing, knife-wielding killer, yet predates the slasher craze by a number of years.

Alice is a peculiar, angry 12-year-old in a devout Catholic household with a far-too-perfect sister, absent father, impatient mother, overbearing aunt and licentious, obese landlord. After her sister is burned to death in a pew at her first communion, Alice understandably becomes the prime suspect. Gradually, her strange, volatile behavior escalates, continuing to alarm her family as the unspeakable violence against those around her persists. Is Alice’s deformed, two-faced doll just a toy… or is it also a metaphor?

Perhaps most notable for being the first screen appearance of budding-sexpot Brooke Shields –who plays Alice’s angelic sister Karen– the real star of ALICE SWEET ALICE is the deranged titular character herself, played with disturbing efficacy by a 19-year-old(!) Paula Sheppard (who would later go on to star in 1982′s sci-fi synth-punk opus LIQUID SKY, her only other screen credit). Originally premiering as COMMUNION in 1976, the film was re-titled by skittish censors as ALICE SWEET ALICE upon distribution in 1978, then again as HOLY TERROR in 1981, when it was re-released (after the successes of PRETTY BABY, THE BLUE LAGOON and ENDLESS LOVE) with promotional materials foolhardily inflating Shields’ role.

Literally rounding out the cast is astoundingly weird horror foot-note Alphonso de Noble, the immense, cat-crazy landlord whose revolting on-screen persona was scarcely an act. Also appearing in a couple of Joel M. Reed movies before dying at the age of 31, de Noble was discovered while working as a bouncer at a gay nightclub in New Jersey, where he was alleged to regularly drum up passive income by dressing as a priest and hanging out in cemeteries, soliciting money from grieving family members under the guise of donations to the church.

Alfred Sole’s sole triumph as a writer/director –neither 1972′s porn drama DEEP SLEEP nor 1982′s horror comedy PANDEMONIUM were able to save him from a subsequent career as Production Designer on VERONICA MARS– ALICE SWEET ALICE is an undisputed 1970s horror classic: a film that sustains a disquieting, sinister vibe arguably better than many of its better-known Euro predecessors or subsequent American offspring.