|
''Alice, Sweet Alice'' (also known as ''Communion'' or ''Holy Terror'') is a 1976 American slasher film co-written and directed by Alfred Sole, and starring Linda Miller, Paula Sheppard, and Brooke Shields in her film debut. The narrative focuses on a troubled adolescent girl who becomes a suspect in the brutal murder of her younger sister at her first communion. The film premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival under the title ''Communion'' in November 1976, and was released theatrically as ''Alice, Sweet Alice'' in 1978. It was re-released a third time as ''Holy Terror'' in 1981, marketing upon the popularity of Brooke Shields after her notorious performance in Louis Malle's ''Pretty Baby'' (1978).〔 The film ranked #89 on Bravo's ''The 100 Scariest Movie Moments'' for the scene when Alice scares Karen in the warehouse. In 1977 there was a book adaptation of the film titled ''Communion'' by Frank Lauria. ==Plot== The film is set in Paterson, New Jersey in the early 1960s. Catherine Spages (Linda Miller) is visiting Father Tom (Rudolph Willrich) with her two daughters, who both attend St. Michael's Parish Girls' School: 9-year-old Karen (Brooke Shields) and 12-year-old Alice (Paula Sheppard). Karen is preparing for her First Communion and Father Tom gives her his mother's crucifix as a gift. A jealous Alice puts on a creepy, translucent grinning mask, frightening Mrs. Tredoni (Mildred Clinton), Father Tom's housekeeper. Later, Alice steals Karen's porcelain doll and lures her into an abandoned building with it. She jumps out and scares Karen with the grinning mask and locks her in a room. When she lets her out she tells her that if anyone finds out, she'll never see the doll again. On the day of the First Communion, Karen is attacked and strangled to death in the cathedral transept by a person in a translucent mask and yellow raincoat. Her body is dragged away and dumped into a bench compartment, which is set on fire with a candle, but not before ripping the crucifix from her neck. Smoke begins to fill the church. Meanwhile, Alice enters the church, carrying Karen's veil. She kneels in place to receive communion when a scream is heard. A curious nun had entered the back room where the confessionals are located and finds Karen's body. People run in, horrified. Catherine is inconsolable. After Karen's funeral, Catherine's ex-husband Dominick "Dom" Spages (Niles McMaster) arrives in town to help track down the killer. Catherine's sister, Annie DeLorenze (Jane Lowry), moves in to help Catherine through her grief, but it is soon evident that Alice and Annie despise each other. Catherine tells Alice to deliver a rent check to their landlord, Mr. Alphonso (Alphonso DeNoble). After he fondles and tries to molest her (as he had once before), Alice kills one of his many cats and goes down to the basement, where she lights a candle and puts on her grinning mask. Descending the stairs to go shopping, Annie is viciously attacked; a rain coated figure in a grinning mask stabs her in the knee, foot, and thigh. At the hospital, Annie cries to her husband Jim (Gary Allen) that Alice tried to kill her. Catherine says that Annie is only accusing Alice of murdering Karen to divert attention from her own daughter Angela (Kathy Rich), who was absent at the time of the murder, but Alice is sent to a mental institution for evaluation. At the hospital with Father Tom, Dom receives a hysterical phone call from a girl claiming to be Angela, saying that she has Karen's crucifix and is in hiding. They agree to meet at an abandoned building. Outside, Dom spots the rain coated figure and follows it. He goes inside and up the stairs where the killer stabs him in the shoulder and he is knocked out by a brick and tied up. Dom awakens and sees that the killer is in fact Mrs. Tredoni. She reveals that she stabbed Annie by mistake, thinking it was Catherine, whom she considers a whore. She calls Dom and Catherine sinners because they had premarital sex. After Dom bites the crucifix off her neck, Mrs. Tredoni beats him with a rock and pushes him out of the window. After a pathologist (Lillian Roth) analyzes Dom's corpse, the crucifix is found and Alice is released. After hearing of Dom's death, Catherine tries to visit Father Tom. He is not at home, but Mrs. Tredoni invites Catherine in. Mrs. Tredoni tells Catherine her daughter died on the day of her first communion and that she then realized children are punished for the sins of their parents and that Mrs. Tredoni since devoted her life to the Church and specifically, Father Tom. Mrs. Tredoni seemingly threatens Catherine with a knife when Father Tom and the pair leave to pick Alice up from the mental institution (the police having eliminated her as a suspect since she was incarcerated when Dom was killed). When Catherine and Alice go to church Mrs. Tredoni sneaks into the apartment building. As Mrs. Tredoni bangs on Catherine's apartment door, not realizing the pair are not in, Mr. Alphonso wakes up screaming (Alice put a jar of cockroaches on his belly before leaving). He spots Mrs. Tredoni and mistakes her for Alice. She stabs him twice and runs downstairs. However, a policeman witnesses her running out of the back entrance without the mask on. Mrs. Tredoni goes to church, where the police are stationed outside. Father Tom denies her communion. Mrs. Tredoni points at Catherine, screams that he gave communion to a whore, and violently stabs Father Tom in the throat as the police rush in. Father Tom dies in Mrs. Tredoni's arms. The final shot features Alice walking out of the church with Mrs. Tredoni's shopping bag, placing the bloodstained butcher knife into the bag, and looks at the camera. The shot freezes on her face as the credits roll. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alice, Sweet Alice」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|