Alice, Sweet Alice

(1976)***1/2

Alice, Sweet Alice is set in 1961 New Jersey. As Karen (Brooke Shields) prepares for her first communion her bitchy sister, Alice, looks on with daggers in her eyes. Alice has always been jealous of the attention her younger sister receives from everyone, her first communion just the latest achievement to rub Alice the wrong way. Alice is very cruel to Karen, often destroying her toys and generally torturing her sister and throwing diva-proportioned hissey fits. She often dons a yellow raincoat and wears a creepy mask in an effort to frighten her sister and because Alice is a bit of a nut job.

Why would anyone think I'm crazy?
Early on in the story as Karen is about to receive communion, she is lured away by a figure in a yellow raincoat, wearing the same creepy mask her sister is often seen with. She is strangled to death and set on fire. Despite the overwhelming evidence of Karen being the murderer, her divorced parents refuse to believe it. Later, after her aunt is stabbed with a large knife, she survives long enough to identify Alice as the murderer. Alice vehemently denies this and instead suggests that her sister has come back from the grave and is the one responsible for their aunts’ murder. After others are similarly attacked Alice is committed for evaluation despite insisting that her sister is still alive.

This is what a lifetime of Catholicism and abstinence looks like

After watching a slew of bad slashers recently I was delighted to discover this lost little gem. Alice, Sweet, Alice is a riveting mystery with frightening imagery (isn’t Catholic imagery always frightening? No? Look again at that nun pictured above again). The performances were excellent, particularly the portrayal of Alice as a sociopath. I haven’t seen a chick this evil since The Bad Seed (1956). The film does a good doubt raising questions about Alice’s guilt or innocence and there are a number of red herrings to keep you guessing. The film is slightly sluggish in the middle, mostly due to an unnecessary storyline about Alice’s parents possibly getting back together, but this can be forgiven because the rest is a creepy visual treat.