Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I remember the first time I heard about Communion (as it was called). I was ten at the time and it was the last review Barry Norman gave on an episode of his Film '76. The clip was the scene where Aunt Annie descends the stairs and is attacked. It was absolutely terrifying and very reminiscent of Psycho (which I was a big fan of). Unfortunately it took a few years to finally see it on video in the early 1980's but it was worth the wait. Not only was it similar to Psycho but it also reminded me very much of Don't Look Now, which of course influenced Alfred Sole. Too often the film is mentioned as a slasher but this is unfair. The violence in slasher films is usually gratuitous and included for the sake of it whereas in Communion, it is very much part of the story. The soundtrack is also an excellent addition to a fine film.

Over the weekend I attended the Horrorathon at the Hi-Way drive in. The first two films Evil Dead, and The House by the Cemetery were great. I was really looking forward to Alice, Sweet, Alice. The entire film is quite disturbing. The score is very dark and moody, and the film uses religious imagery in a very morbid way. At the church school that they attend, all of the girls wear yellow raincoats which makes it seem that Alice could be the killer. Not more than 10 minutes into the movie, Alice's sister Karen is stuffed into a church pew on her first communion and set on fire. The scene is extremely dark, and the suspense that's built on whether or not Alice is her killer plays out through the movie. It was really awesome seeing this on 35 mm film at midnight in the woods. I can see this movie being very controversial for the time when it was released. Once we find out that the masked killer is actually the house keeper of the church it really made me feel like there was a message about organized religion. In Mrs. Tredoni using her religion to despise Alice because she was born before her parents were married, calling her mother a whore at the altar, and stabbing the priest in the throat after being denied communion really made the point in saying that not all who are "holy" are good people. Overall, I enjoyed this movie a lot. There wasn't a ton of character development. The camera work was really good, especially the scene where Mrs. Tredoni pushes Dominic to his death after he swallows her crucifix.

After a young girl (Brooke Shields) is brutally murdered during her first communion, her strange and withdrawn older sister (Paula E. Sheppard) becomes the main suspect.There are some odd rumors circulating about this film. Allegedly, Bill Lustig worked as a second-unit director, but there seems very little to confirm that. Also, this was alleged to be an attack on the Catholic Church in response to the director getting excommunicated for his involvement in pornography. These aspects appear to be true, or at least director Alfred Sole claims them to be. Apparently a bishop's house was in the adult film, "Deep Sleep", and this was upsetting. Sole was even indicted on federal obscenity charges.What is absolutely true is that this film is criminally underrated. An amazing plot (not unlike the giallo films of the 60s and 70s), a great mystery, a cool killer with a creepy mask (inspired in part by the raincoat in Nic Roeg's "Don't Look Now" and in part by "The Sad Seed"), and solid direction and acting from top to bottom.Even more interestingly, this film was released in 1976, and is obviously a slasher film. This puts it before "Halloween", after "Black Christmas", and well before the slasher boom of the 1980s. The style and plot elements are very much ahead of its time in that respect.As of 2016, the film is expected to be remade by Dante Tomaselli, who happens to be Alfred Sole's cousin. If nothing else, the new film (if it happens) will shine more light on the original.

Alice Spages is a 12 year old girl who is hating every minute of it. Her parents are divorced and she lives with her mother and little sister, Karen (Brooke Shields in her first screen appearance), who gets all of the attention at home. In addition, her overbearing aunt is hostile towards her and the landlord is a sleazy character indeed. So it's no wonder the girl has some problems…but could she really be the one behind the creepy plastic mask and yellow raincoat who is responsible for strangling Karen to death, putting her body in a casket, and burning it on the day of her first communion? Set up established, it quickly becomes clear as you watch the movie whether or not this is the case but this lack of suspense don't affect the movie in any way as the film has many other things going for it. Firstly, if we're talking about a slasher we need to ask about the kills: and kills, although not excessively gory in a Tom Savini way, don't disappoint in having have a fair amount of blood and gain something from lingering on the action a little longer than usual before cutting away. The film also pays homage to Nic Roeg's masterful psychic thriller 'Don't Look Now' (1973) in the use of a diminutive killer stalking our peripheral vision clothed in a striking raincoat, red in Roeg's film but yellow here. In addition, the film has an eerie score which complements the movie well and good performances from the cast, especially from Linda Miller who plays Alice's mother Catherine, and Paula Sheppard, who plays Alice herself.However, the overriding characteristic of the movie is the claustrophobic air of morbidity that comes from the lashings of Catholic iconography employed throughout the film and in far from sympathetic tones. Indeed, it wouldn't be far-fetched to call the film anti-Catholic as it not only provides the film with its emotional backdrop of repression and morbidity but is also used explicitly as motivations for the characters as the film progresses. In this way the film plays effectively as a counter-point to 'The Exorcist', released three years earlier, as both films present little girls on the cusp of puberty, living with their divorced mothers, as somehow threatening or evil. However, whereas the demonic excesses of 'The Exorcist' are regarded by many to be Catholic propaganda designed to get people back to church for fear that disbelief would permit evil to enter this realm, in total contrast 'Alice, Sweet Alice' suggests it is the mechanics of devout belief inherent in the Church which are evil. In this way, 'Alice Sweet Alice' is the far more subversive movie. Plus, an interesting coincidence is that Linda Miller is the wife of none other than Jason Miller…who played Father Karras in 'The Exorcist'!Still, despite the movie's well thought out universe and cinematic literacy, 'Don't Look Now' and 'The Exorcist' are still "better" movies in my opinion. Why? Hard to say, but possibly that these two movies engage on a wider level whereas 'Alice Sweet Alice' seems like a highly-polished rant from someone who hates the church which, while hard to disagree with, seems to lack a certain distance…plus the final scene is a little hokey. Still, this is nit-picking, the movie deserves far more recognition than it has received as it remains as chilling and relevant today as 40 years ago.