(1976)
Directed by Alfred Sole
Starring Paula E. Sheppard, Linda Miller, Rudolph Willrich, Brooke Shields, Mildred Clinton, Niles McMaster, Alphonso DeNoble, Jane Lowry

This film is one that everyone seems to know or remember, especially seeing the VHS tape, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to come up in a lot of conversations, especially when you are discussing the slasher genre. Keep in mind, this film came out two years after Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, but two years before John Carpenter’s Halloween. And yet, when talking about the slasher genre, and this film most certainly is a slasher film, it seems not to come up in those discussions. You have a mysterious, masked killer on the loose, dispatching their victims in a variety of ways, from stabbing, choking, to even throwing them out a window! And the blood flow is pretty excessive in some of these crimes.

All of this came from the mind of co-writer and director Alfred Sole, who grew up watching and loving Alfred Hitchcock films. Even though he had gotten a degree in architecture from the University of Florence in Italy, and had a good career doing that, he wanted to make movies. After thinking that getting his foot in the door of the industry might be easier with some experience, he wrote and directed an adult film called Deep Sleep (1972). This was a lot different than most pornos at the time, which not only had a lot of style to it, but for a budget of about $25 grand, it made a lot of money, which got Sole a lot of attention, but not all good. He would spend the next few years in and out of court on different obscenity charges because of his first step into the film world.

But in 1976, he gave us this stylistic slasher film with some very deep-rooted subtext, both about religion, and mental health. The story all takes place in and around a church setting, with the young Karen, played by newcomer Brooke Shields, getting murdered right before her first communion. The murderer is wearing a yellow raincoat and an almost see-through plastic mask, both of which look pretty close to what our title character Alice, Karen’s older sister, was seeing wearing. Not going to give anything away here, but the story really lays it on thick on whether Alice is the murderer or not.

No matter if she is or not, it’s obvious that young Alice, played wonderfully by Paula E. Sheppard, has some psychological issues. For a film to address this in 1976 was pretty amazing, showing that from the trouble she has at the Catholic school, to the way she treats her sister Karen and even her mother, she is disturbed and needs extra attention. It also brings in the fact that their Alice and Karen’s parents are divorced, which for having a very Catholic centered story, was something definitely highly frowned upon back then.

It was even more amazing that Sheppard was playing as a 12-year-old but in reality, she was 19 at the time! As for her sister, played by Shields, was making her film debut, but would soon be so big that when the film was re-released, her name got moved up in the credits to capitalize on it.

While some may say some of the actors are overacting a bit, such as Jane Lowry as Aunt Annie, the rest of them make enough of an impact, with the story they are telling, to make it enduring and very tragic to see what befalls this family. Linda Miller plays the mother, that has a lot on her plate. She’s a divorced mother of two, but still a very devout Catholic, which is even tougher since living under that shadow of shame of being divorced, especially with some of her fellow parishioners. Plus, when one of your children has possible emotional issues, she still loves them and does her best, maybe to the fault of ignoring obvious signs. Unfortunately, which is quite common with families, even today. Through all of this, Miller gives a strong performance, without going too far, even when it doesn’t look like she can get a break.

The cops investigating the murders seem very typical of that era, but again, not overplaying the stereotype. Mildred Clinton, who plays the caretaker at the church, taking care of the older monsignor, does an exceptional job here, giving a lot of depth in her character, and showing the power of the church and what it can do to some people.

One of the more notable characters is Mr. Alphonso, the landlord of the building the family lives in. He was played by a non-actor named Alphonso DeNoble that director Sole convinced him to be in the film. The very large and overweight man is made to look so disgusting, with his sweat-soaked shirt and whatever has stained the front of his pants, is a wonder that any family would let their children near this guy. He would later work with director Joel M. Reed in a couple pictures, Blood Sucking Freaks (1976) & Night of the Zombies (1981).

Arrow’s new 4K release looks amazing, as well as having some incredible features. The colors here, which are pretty important because of the yellow raincoats, the color of blood, which we see a lot of, as well as the décor of where they are living, which really nails the era of when this takes place. It’s great when a new 4K transfer can bring out a lot of things that might have gotten passed over in the past, with the clarity and the brightness of the colors.

The disc has 3 versions of the film, via “seamless branching”, which are Communion, the original version, Alice, Sweet Alice, the theatrical version, and then Holy Terror, which was the re-issue version. There is a brief split-screen comparison between some of the different versions, which is very interesting to see. Amazing what a little editing does to a film.

There is also a brand-new audio commentary by Richard Harland Smith, which gives us plenty of information about the film. There is an archival commentary by Sole himself, which is both informative and entertaining. Between that and the interview on the disc with Sole, called First Communion, we get some details on how he got into filmmaking, and the troubles that young filmmakers can run into, especially when dealing with the money people in the film industry.

There are also interviews with composer Stephen Lawrence, where he discusses the music for the film, actor Niles McMaster, who played the divorced father, who also would appear in Reed’s Blood Sucking Freaks. There is a nice piece with Dante Tomaselli, cousin of Sole, remembering growing up with his cousin and making his way in the film business. Then, we get to go on a nice tour of the filming locations, led by Michael Gingold! Throw in some deleted scenes for more of a bonus.

If you are a fan of slasher films, then you must have this title in your collection. It’s not the first, but it is right up there in the beginning of the creation of that sub-genre. Not to mention that is just a solid film, with some deep-rooted messages here, that I think are still as effective today as they were almost 50 years ago.