November 18, 2018
Written by: Rosemary Ritvo, Alfred Sole
Starring: Linda Miller, Mildred Clinton, Paula E. Sheppard
Budget: $340,000
Quote: "You filthy pig! You and that WHORE! You both belong in the snares of the devil!"
Trivia: Alphonso DeNoble, who played the Spages' fat pervert landlord, wasn't a professional actor at the time. He was working as a bouncer at a gay bar and director Alfred Sole persuaded him to play the role. Before his death in 1978, he got acting jobs in two other low-budget horror films.
I think my wife summed up this movie best when in the middle of it she exclaimed, "This movie is insane." This movie really is insane. The movie is a murder mystery with lots of comparisons that can be made to the Italian Giallo horror movies of Dario Argento (despite the director having never seen Argento's films). The movie begins with the senseless murder of a child in a church, a moment that sets the darkly religious atmosphere that will carry on throughout the film. Adding to the bleakness of the film is that the dead girl's 12 year old sister seems to one who killed her. The movie has no hero or anyone really to root for and instead is a sad look at the destruction of an already dysfunctional family and weight of the guilt and repression that the Catholic Church puts on its adherents. The filmmakers do an incredible job building the tension throughout the film until, two thirds into the film, they reveal the true identity of the killer. From there, the movie seems to fall apart into a confusing mess. While surprising, the killer and its motive are disappointing leaving the movie feeling anti-climatic. Despite its faults, this 1976 movie is one of several films that helped to pave the way for the slasher films that would dominate the early 1980s (although not banned in the UK as a Video Nasty, it was investigated).
The movie follows the Spages family: divorced mother Catherine, her nine year old and very popular daughter Karen who is preparing for her first communion, twelve year old Alice who is a troublemaker and jealous of Karen's attention (Alice cannot take communion as she was born out of wedlock), and largely absent father Dom. In the first scenes, Alice terrorizes her little sister, locking her in a closet and trying to steal her veil. Later, during Karen's first communion, a figure in a yellow raincoat and translucent plastic mask stabs Karen, steals the crucifix necklace she's wearing, and burns her body. Afterwards, Alice takes Karen's place in the communion line in Karen's veil before her burning body is discovered and the church goes nuts. The next hour or so of the film focuses on incidents intended to make it look more and more like Alice is Karen's murderer: she kills her neighbor's cat (in her defense, he was trying to sexually assault her), has a hidden box full of Karen's stuff, skulks around town in the same raincoat and mask, and after she gets in an argument with her aunt, the aunt is attacked by a person in a raincoat and mask. The Aunt claims that it was Alice and Alice is sent to a mental hospital so she can be analyzed.
SPOILERS: I cannot really talk about the movie without spoiling the twist since it happens with nearly half hour left in the film. So if you haven't seen the movie and are planning to, don't read past here. Alright, everyone ready? Here's where things fall apart. After getting a weird phone call about his daughter's crucifix necklace, the father follows a raincoated figure into an abandoned building where he discovers that it is Mrs. Tredoni, a parishoner who chastises him for having premarital sex and getting a divorce. She then launches him from the window and he dies. Alice is lated exonerated and freed. The mom, not knowing who the killer is, visits the priest, only to find Mrs. Tredoni who guilt trips the mom into devoting her life to the church (she tells the mom that children die for the sins of their parents... really harsh). Mrs. Tredoni kills the Spages' pervert neighbor and flees back to the church only to be followed by the cops. When the priest refuses to give her one last communion, she yells at him for giving a whore (the Spages mom) communion and cuts his throat before the cops haul her off.
Many people have charged that this film is anti-Catholic, a charge that seems to be backed up by the director's self-proclamation of being an ex-Catholic. Prior to this film, the director had made a pornographic movie that got him into a bit of hot water under the 1970s obscenity laws. This minor incident would however get him excommunicated from the church and fuel his anti-Catholicism through this film. The themes this movie explore largely revolve around Catholic guilt and repression. The Church's repressive views on premarital sex and divorce are the driving forces that push Mrs. Tredoni to murder four people, including a child and another priest. The movie highlights the dangers of the Church's repressive behaviors. It also looks at the hypocritical stance that some children should be stigmatized and marginalized for the actions of their parents (the actions the parents took twelve years earlier is the reason Annie is not allowed to take Communion, the holiest act of worship in Catholicism). Instead of a place where people can build a community and feel inspired, the Church of Alice, Sweet Alice is a destructive force that feeds on the lives of its working class members and asks the parents to sacrifice their own children. One cannot forget that this is the same Church that has been robbing children of their innocence for centuries, each scandal yet one more reminder. A seering look at Catholicism, Alice, Sweet Alice is indeed both subversive and inflammatory.
To further build on the film's religious messages, the filmmakers include Catholic iconography throughout. From the crucifix necklace the priest gives to Karen, to the mother's rosary beads, and finally to the daughter's veil, one is constantly reminded of the religious underpinnings of the film's story. The crucifix itself is especially interesting as it is a religious symbol of sacrifice and guilt. This becomes an increasingly potent symbol as murder visits the three people who receive it (Karen is killed shortly after receiving it, the father bites it off Mrs. Tredoni's neck before falling to his death, the priest who originally gifted it is killed, and finally Mrs. Tredoni who stole it from Karen's body is at the center of these murders).
While the atmosphere the filmmakers create is powerful, the movie largely falls apart after Mrs. Tredoni is identified as the killer. It reminds me of when we find out who Laura Palmer's killer was in the middle of the second season of Twin Peaks, from there we aimless follow side stories that were much less interesting (until the infamous third season... damn that show is good!). Too, in Alice, Sweet Alice, when the killer is identified, everything that made the movie interesting largely vanishes. I found myself losing interest as the film began to hastily and sloppily wrap things up. This final third act is more violent that the rest of the movie, but lacks that atmosphere and intrigue that made the movie interesting.
Although I was disappointed in the choice, motivation, and unveiling of the killer, I understand that it helped build on the themes the filmmakers hoped to create. Overall, this is a really bleak movie that represents the darkness that is 1970s cinema and needs to be scene by fellow horror fanatics. Damn the 1970s were dark.
...so I've given you my thoughts, what're yours?
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