ALICE SWEET ALICE

(A.k.a. COMMUNION; HOLY TERROR)

"If you survive this night ... nothing will scare you again".

Recently divorced Catherine (Linda Miller) lives in a dank apartment block with her two daughters, Karen (Brooke Shields) and Alice (Paula Sheppard).

Excitement for them comes in the form of Karen's impending communion. Friend-of-the-family Tom (Rudolph Willrich) is the also the local priest, who will be responsible for overseeing holy communion. At dinner, he presents Karen with a gift and gushes over how big a deal the upcoming event is. Catherine buys Karen a pretty dress for the day and fawns over how cute she's going to look in it. Understandably, Alice - yet to receive her first communion - feels a little put out.

When the day of the communion service comes, Catherine is joined by her sister Annie (Jane Lowry) and her browbeaten husband Jim (Gary Allen) for the proud occasion. Alice discreetly sneaks away from her mother's side as Karen gets herself ready behind the scenes.

As the service commences, Catherine watches from her pew and is a little disconcerted by the non-appearance of Karen at the front. Sadly, while Tom is busy conducting his service, someone has donned a yellow raincoat and creepy plastic mask - and is diligently strangling Karen. The congregation only become aware of this when the stench of burning flesh alerts them to Karen's charred corpse in a back room of the church.

As panic ensues, Alice reappears and casually conceals a communion veil identical to her sister's in the pocket of her yellow raincoat...

The funeral day swiftly arrives and Catherine's ex, Dom (Niles McMaster) turns up. There's clearly unresolved business between him and Catherine, but that'll have to wait - a couple of local cops are quick to approach him with suspicions of young Alice being responsible for Karen's death.

As Dom tries to convince everyone that his daughter wouldn't be capable of killing her own sister, the precocious Alice does her best to suggest she perhaps could - tormenting the oversized landlord (Alphonso DeNoble) who lives below them by verbally abusing him and strangling one of his beloved cats; keeping a weird shrine in a hidden basement; being sexually suggestive beyond her years when examined by child psychologists.

Meanwhile, Catherine sinks into depression and sister Annie moves in to help. But Annie becomes the next victim when the masked assailant strikes again, leaving her hospitalised and Catherine terrified of her own daughter.

Alice couldn't really be responsible for these attacks ... could she? And should folk be worried that Alice is convinced that Karen is responsible for the ensuing murders - even passing a lie detector test with that statement?

ALICE SWEET ALICE is great. It's one of my favourite American horror films of the 1970s.

Made as a reaction to the Catholic church's banning of his 1972 feature debut DEEP SLEEP on grounds of pornography, Alfred Sole's film is a subversive, angry attack on the hypocrisy of that religion. This adds an undeniably delicious slant to proceedings.

Running parallel to this theme, ALICE SWEET ALICE also works superbly as a whodunit. Could pre-teen Alice truly be capable of such heinous crimes? If not, who is responsible - and what's the motive? Sole establishes a great hook from early doors, and never lets go. His masterful balance of editing, characterisation and intrigue allows for a level of suspense worthy of Hitchcock.

Speaking of characters, ALICE is rich with well-written ones. No-one is peripheral here, and everyone is interesting in their own bizarre way. The tender portrayal of Dom and Catherine as a recently divorced couple is quite remarkable; Annie's uneven relationship with Alice is nicely played out, as are the reactions of the protective parents once they realise their daughter is under suspicion for murder. The understanding of grief, loss and love in the screenplay - co-written by Sole and Rosemary Ritvo - is impressive.

The cast are uniformly excellent, breathing life into these believable characters with what seems natural skill. Shields has little to do in her screen debut but makes an impression anyhow. Full marks go to Sheppard (a convincing 12-year-old despite being 19 at the time of filming) and Miller who, between them, bring an authentic sense of sympathy to an already emotive plot.

Violence is used sparingly, but when it comes Sole employs a similar method to Dario Argento's in DEEP RED - focusing on sensitive body parts that people can relate to feeling pain from (feet, teeth etc).

Sole's camera is intelligently placed too. Alongside Stephen Lawrence's righteously creepy score (one of the genre's best in my book) it transforms an excellent thriller into a genuinely disturbing horror film by way of insidious point-of-view shots, footage lensed from behind strategic hiding places and a generally voyeuristic quality enjoyed throughout.

The denouement works, even down to its admittedly predictable downbeat coda. This is a 70s film, after all! In short, ALICE SWEET ALICE continues to age extremely well and remains a startling highpoint in Sole's otherwise baffling career (he only directed two other films, including the so-so TANYA'S ISLAND, before embarking on a successful career as a production designer).

88 Films bring ALICE SWEET ALICE to UK DVD on a region-free disc (I'm gutted there's no blu-ray release). At 102 minutes and 10 seconds in length, this is the full uncut version of the film. Yes, the BBFC have relented and allowed adults in Britain to see the 3 seconds they cut from Tartan's VHS many moons ago (footage of a cat being grabbed by the scruff of its neck). This is the longer cut of the film, unlike the director's slightly shorter version which omitted a tender scene between the divorced parents.

The general assumption is that 88 Films have sourced this print directly from Sole - which would make sense, seeing as though Warner Bros are said to be sitting on the theatrical print and are unwilling to sub-licence it out. While the transfer here is taken from a very clean print, colours do look somewhat worn. Some scenes are deeper than others when it comes to blacks, but even the more faded instances are satisfactory in terms of detail and filmic texture. The film does look its age though (it was shot in 1976), and this may explain why we're not getting a HD release: it could be that the elements are insufficient for striking a 1080p remastering from. A rare vertical line or two on the print - the first I saw occurs 15 minutes into proceedings - doesn't hamper viewing pleasure.

The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and benefits from 16x9 enhancement - the first release to do so, I believe.

English mono audio is clear for the duration, despite a flatness to dialogue that exhibits further evidence of the film's age.

Menus are static all round. The scene-selection menu provides access to ALICE via 12 chapters.

There are some nice bonus features proffered on this disc, albeit the majority of which will be familiar to those who've owned earlier releases.

First up is a wonderfully detailed audio commentary track from Sole, editor Edward Salier and moderator William Lustig. This was first recorded for the film's Laserdisc release many, many moons ago but remains a tantalising proposition. We get the background to the film, notes on how DON'T LOOK NOW became a stylistic influence, the revelation that most scenes were shot in a single take (which makes the results nigh-on miraculous) and much more.

There's a nice 61-second alternate opening title sequence, boasting the original title COMMUNION. It's a little on the scratchy side, but we'd moan if it wasn't included here.

An original theatrical trailer comes across as clean but a tad soft in a decent 16x9 presentation. It bears the title HOLY TERROR and plays heavily on the involvement of Shields. This runs for 101 seconds.

A 7-minute stills gallery is set to the film's creepy score and offers a plethora of colourful, handsomely mounted grabs from the film. We also get a fine selection of lobby cards, promotional stills etc during this nice addition.

Finally on the disc, we're treated to a fine selection of trailers for other titles in 88 Film's increasingly impressive roster: THE CORPSE GRINDERS, TWO MOON JUNCTION, BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS, HIDEOUS!, GIRL IN GOLD BOOTS, ROBOT WARS, THE DOLL SQUAD, DOLLMAN, CASTLE FREAK and High Rising Productions' SLICE AND DICE: THE SLASHER FILM FOREVER.

This set is rounded off by double-sided reversible cover artwork (the reverse being the iconic American poster art) and a booklet containing liner notes.

Nice one, 88 Films. ALICE SWEET ALICE is a fantastic film and it's great to have it uncut on UK DVD.

By Stuart Willis