ALICE, SWEET ALICE - MOVIE [DVD] [1976]

Misunderstood child framed for her sisters murder. Excellent acting all round, Paula Sheppard and Linda Miller put on amazing performances. The storyline is riveting throughout and the characters are well thought out.A must watch for all classic horror fans.

A surprise hit in the UK - I remember seeing the film in a packed 900 seat cinema in the seventies - combining the style and themes of Giallo films like Lucio Fulci's 'Don't Torture the Duckling' with Hitchcock's 'Psycho' and 'I Confess'.The film does feels a bit dated for a modern audience. The acting veers back and forth from wooden to hysterical, with no consistent tone, the score tries to replicate Bernard Hermann but ends up just screaming at you, the sound recording is extremely primitive and the final reveal is not much of a surprise. However, the film is suitably creepy and unpleasant, the cinematographer frames his shots well and the colour scheme is extremely effective, if a little derivative of 'Don't Look Now', which had been made a few years earlier.A promising enough debut from a director who never quite made the transition from independent films to Hollywood.

The title card says 'Communion' yet Shudder tells me 'Alice, Sweet Alice'. What's a pea brained, sofa surfing simpleton like me to do? Well, as I normally do. Pucker up my butt cheeks, down 3 bottles of scotch and fly through this late '70s oddity with an open mind and a willingness to be wowed by a long forgotten (well, by me anyway - but that's a side effect of the Xanax) horror fix that's guaranteed to deliver. Won't it?Alice Spages (Paula Sheppard) is one mean piece of work. A 12-year-old mini lunatic who spends much of her time dressing up in a creepy mask, teasing freak-o landlord Alphonso and generally being a right royal pain to her long suffering mother Catherine (Linda Miller), whilst tormenting younger sister Karen (Brooke Shields). Yeah, she's a real joy all right. However, Alice's life is about to enter a downward spiral when Karen is brutally murdered at the local church and wouldn't you know it - Alice becomes a public enemy number one. However, is this really the work of the demented youngster? Or are other forces at play? Cue 1 hr and 45 minutes of screeching mediocrity as we find out the long and hard way as to who is doing the murderising and more importantly, why...?'Tanya's Island' director Alfred Sole (and one time production designer for - gasp! - 'Night of the Running Man') goes for a mature, methodical vibe for this 1976 indie, evoking the 'feels' (yeah, I'm hip) of early Roman Polanski or Nic Roeg when infact he should have been dolloping on the weirdo tension of a pre-'The Fly' David Cronenberg. The movie attempts a deep psychological slant, yet doesn't have a strong enough screenplay to warrant the extra inspection. Sole and Rosemary Ritvo's screenplay hints at depth yet all they seem to focus on is the cast perpetually screaming at each other or bafflingly, a high number of odd tonal shifts - making me feel extra grouchy wondering why my wife didn't order that extra pack of Doritos. To be fair though, the cast are great with standout turns from Sheppard and Miller, who between them handle much of the heavy lifting and deliver a duo of nuanced performances. Visually the movie is fine and director Sole seems to like rain - a lot! His movie makes 'The Batman' look like 'Lawrence of Arabia' with multiple sequences of water logged streets and ringing wet cast members running in and out of drenched US city. For its over abundance, I was hoping the rain was some kind of visual metaphor, then found a Dorito stuck to my belly button and forgot all about it.All in all, it's certainly not the worst thing in the world but the left field reveal of the killer and the drawn out finale didn't do much for my acid reflux, so it's a difficult one to whole heartedly recommend. However, life is short as is my memory so yeah, worth a one-shot pop but bear in mind the endless screeching, the buckets of rain and that long winded ending.

The film is a must-see for horror fans. A great “70’s” stylised look while gradually fading into what would then be the Slasher 80’s era.I was quite disappointed to find out that the version uploaded is missing quite a lot of frames, mostly of the killings. I.e. The staircase scene with the knife going into the foot, the priest scene and more…

Another film 🎥 🎞 for my collection brilliant simon

Gelungener Hybrid aus Familiendrama und Slasherfilm mit Elementen des Giallo, der in deutlicher Form Praktiken der Kirche kritisiert und mit schönen Kameraeinstellungen zu gefallen weiß. Die spannende Story um ein vielleicht verrücktes junges Mädchen kommt außerdem als heftige coming of age Geschichte daher und wird von einem sehr guten Soundtrack getragen. Ein handgemachter Film der mir sehr viel Vergnügen bereitet hat. Bild und Ton sind auf der DVD vollkommen in Ordnung, Boni sind leider nicht enthalten.

"Alice, sweet Alice" ist einer DER Filme, die man als mega großer Fan des Genres unbedingt mal gseehen haben sollte, wenn man etwas für Horror-Perlen der älteren Jahre übrig hat. Der Streifen hat viele Fans, weswegen meine Kritik auch nicht zu derbe ausfallen wird.Ich mache es einfach kurz und schmerzlos: Der Film war leider nicht so wirklich mein Fall. Die Grundhandlung war auf jeden Fall sehr interessant und einige Szenen waren auch dabei, an die ich mich wahrscheinlich auch weiterhin erinnern werde, wenn dieser Film Thema ist. Aber im Großen und Ganzen hat mich der Film sehr gelangweilt und auf Grund der hohen Erwartungshaltung leider ziemlich enttäuscht!Schön für alle Fans, dass dieser Klassiker günstig auf DVD zu erstehen ist, aber ich persönlich hätte diesen Streifen in meiner so wie so schon viel zu großen Sammlung nicht gebraucht!