Alice, Sweet Alice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Alice, Sweet Alice | |
|---|---|
 movie poster for the 1978 re-release |
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| Directed by | Alfred Sole |
| Produced by | Richard K. Rosenberg, Alfred Sole |
| Written by | Rosemary Ritvo, Alfred Sole |
| Starring | Paula Sheppard, Linda Miller, Mildred Clinton, Niles McMaster, Rudolph Willrich, Jane Lowry, Alphonso DeNoble, Brooke Shields |
| Music by | Stephen J. Lawrence |
| Editing by | Edward Salier |
| Distributed by | Allied Artists |
| Release date(s) | November 13, 1977 |
| Running time | 98 min (108 min unrated version) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $340,000 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Alice, Sweet Alice (aka Communion or Holy Terror) is a 1977 psychological horror which featured Brooke Shields in her first movie. It was released 3 times—as Communion in 1976; as Alice, Sweet Alice in 1978 and as Holy Terror in 1981. This film was #89 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments for the scene when the killer unmasks in the warehouse.
[edit] Plot
The film is set in Paterson, New Jersey, 1961, amongst a Catholic community. Catherine Spages is a young divorcee and mother of two—9 year old Karen (Brooke Shields in her screen debut) and 12 year old Alice (played by a 19 year old Paula Sheppard). Karen is preparing for her first communion and the handsome priest gives her his mother's chained crucifix as a gift. Alice watches the attention her younger sibling is receiving with obvious resentment and jealousy. To get back at her, Alice mistreats Karen's communion veil and plays warped jokes on her. She steals Karen's porcelain doll (a gift from their dad) and lures her into an abandoned building with it, only to jump out and scare her with a grinning mask.
On the morning of Karen's communion, Alice sneaks out of their apartment. She's seen leaving the building by her morbidly obese landlord, Mr. Alphonso. At mass, Catherine looks all over for Alice but can't find her. Catherine's sister Annie insists that Alice be found, so she sends her daughter Angela outside to look for her. Meanwhile, in the back room of the church, the children are all dressed like brides and grooms and lined up, ready to march into the church and receive the body and blood of Christ. Karen stands at the very end of the line holding a candle. She hears someone whisper "Psst!" from behind the big column. The line marches into the cathedral and just as Karen is about to walk out, a fiend wearing a grinning mask and a yellow raincoat (worn by all the children at the Catholic school) swipes her candle and strangles her to death with it. Karen's veil falls to the floor in the struggle. The person rips the gold crucifix from her neck, puts her corpse in a chest and sets fire to it with the candle. In the church, the children are all receiving the host. Alice walks out of the back room, her yellow slicker hung over her arm. She kneels in Karen's place at the altar—much to the outrage of her mother. Just as Alice is about to receive the host, a piercing scream comes from the back room. A nun has discovered Karen's smouldering body. The congregation erupts into chaos. Annie's daughter, Angela is still absent. Catherine discovers that Alice has Karen's veil. Alice claims she found it on the floor when she came in through the back door.
Catherine's ex-husband, Dominic Spages, comes into town to attend his daughter's funeral and to help track down the murderer. Aunt Annie decides to move in with Catherine during this time of grief—much to Alice's chagrin. Dom goes down to the police station where he talks with two detectives who want to ask Alice a few questions. Dom gets angry with them when they insinuate that Alice is the killer and he denies them an interview with her. After Dom leaves, they look through Alice's behavioral record, obtained from the school principal, and find out that she's a real "nut". Back at the apartment, Alice accidentally spills milk on the floor and gets into an argument with her Aunt. Her mother gives her the rent check and tells her to bring it down to Mr. Alphonso. Alice slips on her slicker and leaves. Mr. Alphonso sits in his antique filled apartment, wearing soiled pants and listening to old show tunes with his cats. Alice walks in and starts taunting him. He tells her that he knows what she has down in the basement. He warns her that Karen will come back for them. Alice crumples up the rent check and he tries to fondle her. She retaliates by strangling one of his cats. She runs down to the basement where she keeps Karen's doll and other morbid items in a steamer trunk.
Meanwhile, Aunt Annie is getting ready to go out. Carrying a shopping bag, the diminutive killer comes out of the basement and waits by the stairs. Annie walks down the stairs as a cheerful old song resonates from Alphonso's apartment. Annie is startled by the figure standing below her. She scolds the person, who pulls a knife from the shopping bag and stabs her in the knee and foot. The attacker runs back into the basement when Catherine comes running to help Annie. Alice is later found in the basement, hiding behind the steamer trunk. She claims that she saw Karen, in her yellow coat, walk in through the back entrance of the basement and go upstairs. At the hospital, Annie hysterically accuses Alice of the attack. Dom believes that Annie is just accusing Alice to avert attention away from her own daughter, Angela, who may have committed the crimes as well. Alice is taken to the police station for a polygraph test, which reveals that she did not stab her aunt and that she really believes Karen has returned from the grave to seek revenge. She's labelled a schizophrenic prone to violent outbursts and put in a mental institution.
Dom gets a phone call from a someone claiming to be Angela. She confesses to murdering Karen and says she wants to give the crucifix back to him. Dom agrees to meet her in an abandoned building, thinking he can make her turn herself in. At the abandoned building, the person in the raincoat stabs Dom in the shoulder and knocks him unconscious with a brick. His tied up body is rolled toward a sixth-floor drop-off. He wakes up in time to see the killer take off the mask. The person utters a few insults at him. He bites off the crucifix that's hanging from the killer's neck and swallows it. Reciting the Prayer to Saint Michael, the killer beats his lips into a bloody pulp and then pushes him off the ledge. Eventually, the fiend is apprehended, but not before more blood has been spilled on holy ground.
[edit] Remake
It was revealed by UHMN (Underground Horror Movie Network) that Alfred Sole's cousin, Dante Tomaselli, is developing a remake of this film. It has been set for release date in 2009.
