Alice, Querida Alice

Alice, Sweet Alice is a hard movie to forget. Dealing with religious repression, mental illness, and child murder might make it sound like a depressing chore to sit through but director, Alfred Sole, loads the film with so many memorable images and set pieces and keeps things both gritty and grounded, but elevated and a bit campy at the same time which throws the viewer out of whack. There are also some very surprising deaths and attack scenes that you don't see coming and that's always a plus in a film like this.

I had never heard of Alice Sweet Alice until a a while back when it was on a list of overlooked horror films. I had never heard it mentioned as even a cult classic but I was intrigued. The 1970's produced some pretty good horror films. I went in with pretty low expectations and even though I can't say that this film blew me away I do think that it is better than your average slasher film.

I do know that the original title was Communion but they chose Alice Sweet Alice which is a lame title in my opinion. The film is about a spoiled 12 year old girl named Alice played by Paula Sheppard. She is jealous of her angelic 10 year old sister Karen who is played by Brooke Shields. One of her church's priests Father Tom gives Karen his mother's crucifix and Alice is very jealous. Alice torments Karen by taking one of her dolls and scaring her by wearing a weird translucent mask and a raincoat. She threatens Karen not to tell anyone. All of this is set up to make Alice look like a bad seed. On the day of her First Communion, Karen is strangled to death in the church transept by a person wearing a translucent mask and a yellow raincoat. Her body is stuffed into a bench compartment near the confessionals, which is set on fire with a candle, but not before her crucifix is ripped from her neck. This first murder is not gory but is very brutal. Alice comes into the church to receive her communion but is found to have Karen's veil. The film is pointing to her as the killer so obviously that it is not hard to figure she's really innocent. But of course she's so unlikable that the film leaves the possibility open. We see Alice's mother Catherine played by Linda Miller dealing with her grief along with her sister Annie who loves in to help. She does not get along at all with Alice. Catherine us divorced, but her ex husband Dominick comes to the funeral and wants to find out more about Karen's murder. The whole film is set up in a sort of melodramatic way. The performances are good but border on camp in some scenes. The killer keeps appearing going after others in Alice's life. The film is very tense and creepy at times. It also has alot of religious imagery. I don't think that directpr Alfred Sole is a big fan of Catholicism, he deals with sin, guilt and especially hypocrisy. Even though the film does have a simple even cheap.look it is well made. The image of the translucent mask and tge raincoat is very creepy. The film throws some clues on who the killer is but really wants to.keep the possibility that it could be Alice. When it us revealed who the killer actually is it is kind of confusing but all I can say is that the motivation is very similar to what was seen in David Fincher's Se7en. The final 30 minutes kind of lags a little butthe story is pretty involving.

The film is not really that bloody but the violence it does have is pretty brutal. It is a film that has been largely ignored in the mainstream but I think it is one of the better early slasher horror films of the 70's. At times,, it actually feels very much like an Italian giallo.

Very creepy and effective.

Grade: B

Suspicion falls on the sister of a girl killed during her first holy communion ...

Much to enjoy in this movie. It has the lurid brutality that the '70s specialised in, with a worrying line in sexual inappropriateness, and makes no bones about its bleak outlook.

The cinematography is intriguing, with my favourite composition a big knife in the kitchen foreground as a line of three females draws the eye into the frame. Plenty of little touches of the cruel or grotesque, including a kitten lapping the fresh blood of a peculiar murder victim. And also that period habit of intriguing snap-shots of by-standers: the mental hospital orderly's watchful face, and the cousin's dumbfounded look at the final communion service.

The performances are good, with many scenes of raised voices that jangle the nerves. But the over-ripe music gives the impression of numerous string instruments being furiously sawed-in-half.

The real problem is the preposterous plot, which even on its own terms falls between the stools of police procedural and psychological portrait. For me, Alice's story was the main event, and I found my interest drifting as the plot jumped the track to become a sort of blood-drenched Scooby Doo mystery. In the end, I don't class this as a horror, but as psychological thriller - and a cheap one at that.

Overall: Harrowing disturbance descends into daft commotion.

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.

Alice Spages (Paula Sheppard) is a rebel and problematic twelve year-old girl that lives with her divorced mother Catherine (Linda Miller) and her younger sister Karen (Brooke Shields). Catherine gives more attention to Karen, neglecting her older daughter. During the first communion of Karen, the girl is strangled by a woman dressed with a St. Michael's yellow coat and a mask. Alice takes her place in the line wearing her veil that she claims she had found on the floor and becomes the prime suspect of the police. When Catherine's sister Annie (Jane Lowry) is stabbed on the leg several times, she accuses Alice and the girl is sent to psychological evaluation under the protest of her parents and their friend Father Tom (Rudolph Willrich). Alice's father Dominick Spages (Nies McMaster) seeks evidences to prove the innocence of Alice.

"Communion" is a creepy and stylish horror movie of the 70's and practically the debut of Brooke Shields in the cinema with a minor but important participation. The dramatic story discloses insanity through weird characters in a period of heavy rain and using the Catholic principles of communion, sin and guilty, giving an atmosphere that recalls Dario Argento's movies. The relationship among Catherine, Father Tom and Dominick is not clear, especially because the Catholic Church requires celibate from the priests. In one moment, Catherine is ready to leave town alone, and she says to Father Tom that Alice would be better with him, giving an indication that Alice might be Tom's daughter. If my guess is right, the behavior of fanatic Catholic Annie that apparently blames Catherine for getting married pregnant of Alice is explained, and the conclusion is perfect, with Mrs. Tredoni saying that "children should pay for the sins of their parents"; calling Catherine of whore; and stabbing Father Tom. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Comunhão" ("Communion")

Note: On 29 May 2012, I saw this film again on DVD.

Note; On 06 Sep 2022, I saw this film again.