ALICE SWEET ALICE

Alice, Sweet Alice (aka Communion or Holy Terror) is a 1977 psychological horror slasher film. 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 Alice scares Karen in the warehouse. It is also notable for being the screen debut of Brooke Shields, who played Karen.

The film is set in Paterson, New Jersey, 1961—amongst a Catholic community. Karen is preparing for her first communion. Her older sister Alice watches the attention her younger sibling is receiving with obvious resentment and jealousy. Her attempts at averting the gaze of the adults away from Karen are met with shocked disapproval. She sneaks up on people wearing a grinning mask and yellow raincoat (worn by all the children at the catholic school), throws childish tantrums and, when alone with her sister, plays cruel and warped jokes on her. Her attention seeking only manages to alienate her more and many of the characters regard her with thinly disguised distrust and dislike. Shortly into the film, just before Karen enters the church to begin her communion she is lured away by a whispering figure, wearing the same mask and coat as her sister, who strangles her and dumps her body in a chest, setting fire to it with a church candle. Alice then enters the church and takes up her sister’s place at the altar, kneeling to receive communion—much to the outrage of her family. Before they can interject, Karen’s smoldering body is discovered. All evidence points to Alice as the murderer—a notion that only her mother and (estranged) father refuse to entertain. Soon Alice’s aunt (who Alice hates) is attacked viciously, with a butcher knife, on the stairs by the small figure wearing the mask and yellow coat. She survives to point the finger at Alice. Alice denies it, but eventually reveals her belief that her sister has returned from the grave to seek revenge...




TRIVIA

* Director Alfred Sole was previously a director of pornographic movies.
* Paula Sheppard, who played the part of Alice, was actually 19-years-old during the time of filming.
* The film was shot on location in Paterson, New Jersey, Sole's hometown.
* This film was #89 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments for the scene when Alice takes off her mask in the warehouse.
* The ending wherein Alice stares at the camera is later spoofed in The Simpsons (specifically in Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two) wherein infant Maggie Simpson glares at the camera. She was discovered to injure Montgomery Burns through a gunshot and it was implied that it may not have been an accident[citation needed].
* Lillian Roth at age 67 made a brief appearance as a pathologist in the film. It was the famous singer's first film role in 42 years, making it one of the longest (if not the longest) spans of time of an actor making a film appearance.
* Brooke Shields made her film debut at age 12 in this eerie, effective chiller from director Alfred Sole. However, her role can be summed up in one word -- cameo -- as she is quickly and shockingly strangled and burned to death.