Alice, Sweet Alice

Alice, Sweet Alice, originally titled Communion, is a 1976 American psychological horror slasher film directed by Alfred Sole, written by Sole and Rosemary Ritvo, and starring Linda Miller, Paula Sheppard, and Brooke Shields in her film debut. Set in 1961 Paterson, New Jersey, the film focuses on a troubled adolescent girl (Sheppard) who becomes a suspect in the brutal murder of her younger sister (Shields) at her First Communion, as well as in a series of unsolved stabbings that follow. Mildred Clinton, Niles McMaster, and Jane Lowry co-star, with Louisa Horton and Lillian Roth appearing in minor roles.

Sole developed the film's screenplay with Ritvo, an English professor who was his neighbor, drawing influence from Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973) and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. He assembled a cast of New York City-based actors to appear in the film, largely from theater backgrounds. Principal photography took place throughout the summer of 1975 on location in Paterson and Newark, New Jersey. Through his architectural career restoring historic buildings in Paterson, Sole was able to secure several properties there as filming locations.

The film premiered at the 12th Chicago International Film Festival in November 1976 under its original title, Communion; it opened in England in September 1977 under this same name. After being acquired by Allied Artists, the film was re-titled Alice, Sweet Alice, and released in the United States on November 18, 1977. It was theatrically reissued again in 1981 by Dynamite Entertainment under the title Holy Terror, with a marketing campaign that exploited Shields's appearance in the film following her rising profile. Because the film was not properly registered for copyright between its reissues, it was widely distributed in the home media market by public domain companies until 1997 when Sole made small editorial changes to the film, allowing him to re-copyright it in a variant version.

Alice, Sweet Alice received mixed reviews from film critics, though it was met with largely favorable reception in England. Sole's direction and Sheppard's performance received praise, though many critics found the film's graphic violence and religious themes obscene and anti-Catholic. It received accolades from several film festivals and critical associations. In the years since its release, it has gained a cult following and is considered a contemporary classic of the slasher subgenre in critical circles, as well as an example of an "American giallo." It has also been the focus of scholarship in the areas of horror film studies, particularly regarding its depictions of Roman Catholicism, child emotional neglect, and the disintegration of the American nuclear family.