Alice, Sweet Alice
Added How We Rate
- Directed by
- Alfred Sole
- Written by
- Alfred Sole, Rosemary Ritvo
- Produced by
- Alfred Sole, Richard K. Rosenberg
Why it’s HorroRated
Sole builds a nightmare out of ordinary Catholic life: rosaries, dim stairwells, a cramped apartment, and a church that offers no comfort at all. The killer's look, that cheap yellow slicker and blank, doll-like mask, is among the most unsettling images seventies horror ever produced, and the attacks come with a jagged, startling ferocity. Paula Sheppard gives Alice a sly, unreadable edge that keeps you guessing about her, while the adults around her are just as rotten in their own ways. It's a grimy, brilliant mystery that deserves a place next to Halloween and Black Christmas.
Synopsis
Paterson, New Jersey, 1961: little Karen Spages is murdered in church just before her First Communion, and her resentful 12-year-old sister falls under suspicion in Alfred Sole's Catholic-set horror mystery Alice, Sweet Alice (1976), co-written with Rosemary Ritvo. Paula Sheppard plays Alice, a young Brooke Shields makes her screen debut as Karen, and a masked killer in a child's yellow slicker strikes again and again as the family and the parish turn on one another. First released as Communion and reissued in 1981 as Holy Terror, it is now regarded as a key American proto-slasher with the stylish, bloody mystery of an Italian giallo.
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Where to watch Alice, Sweet Alice
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- Free
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Streaming in the US changes often. Listings from JustWatch via TMDB, checked October 10, 2026.See every option
Quick facts
- Release date
- November 13, 1976
- Runtime
- 1 hour 48 mins
- Country
- United States of America
- Language
- English
- Content rating
- R
- Entry type
- Movie
Content notes
- Brutal stabbings
- Bloody wounds
- Violence against children
Tags
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