#40 - Alice Sweet Alice (1976)

 

Alice Sweet Alice (1976)

(dir. Alfred Sole)

Alice is a 12 year old girl who shows some sociopathic tendencies and is jealous of the attention her mother gives her younger sister Karen. When Karen is brutally murdered at her First Communion ceremony, Alice is considered a prime suspect, and her parents must fight to prove her innocence. That's assuming she IS innocent, of course...

On the surface this seems like an American giallo (or proto-slasher maybe) with a standard "evil kid" plot, but it's much more than that too. It's about the relationship between Catholicism and guilt, innocence, and how it treats women and children. It has a very creepy and sometimes even sleazy feel to it. The mask that the killer wears is unsettling as hell, but the creep factor comes more from the way the characters act and the way they are treated.

I haven't seen this talked about much, which is surprising because it's very good. I wouldn't say it's the best horror film I've seen so far this month, but it may be the most effective. I found it really disturbing and sad in a way that I can't quite put my finger on. Alice lives in an unpleasant world and the adults responsible for her prefer to ignore her problems because it's easier than having to deal with them. This is much more than your typical slasher and I highly recommend it to fans of '70s horror.