Friday, April 24, 2015

Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

Very cool and criminally underrated Hitchcock-style '70s 'proto-slasher' film. "Alice, Sweet Alice" has a remarkably strong and original story line and some pretty memorably whacked-out fuckers doing crazy whacked-out shit...

During her first communion, a young girl is murdered and set on fire in the back room of the church. Due to her behavioral problems, the sister is immediately the prime suspect, though they can't really pin it on her... That is, until her cold-hearted auntie is knifed on the apartment staircase by a masked nutjob in a yellow raincoat that matches the presumably 'evil' sister's. So she's locked away, but is that the end of the brutal attacks?...

"Alice, Sweet Alice" (aka. "Communion" - aka. "Holy Terror") definitely has a lot going for it - strong, entertaining performances, namely the creepy, obese pedo neighbor and the crazy old Italian bitch. It all 'jibes' extremely well with the briskly paced - very DePalma-esque - 'mystery' premise that continues to work nicely, well after the big reveal when all hell breaks loose. Not a major bloodbath by any stretch, but the few scenes of violence are still quite harsh and gruesome and usually very unexpected, which was cool, namely the guy getting a crucifix bashed down his throat with a shoe! This is an oddly overlooked film that I feel really should be renowned as much more of a true horror 'classic' then it is. Highly recommended!

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