Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) from Arrow

[jess1581]

Originally Posted by Kincho

Arrow's was sourced from the original camera negative for the first time on home video.

Yep, even the original title Communion shows up as the title.

Great movie, and great blu ray in any case.

[silverlakephil]

I just finished watching this excellent release. Now it's time for the xtras. Probably will be in my top 5 for 2019. Question no mention of the Cinematographer on the credits. Did you the director, Alfred Soles, did that as well, but wasn't mentioned for some reason?

[Keyser Soze.]

Finally grabbed a copy over the weekend.

I’m really glad Arrow was the one to put this one out.

[kem71]

Were any fellow cat lovers disturbed by that one scene of animal cruelty? Yeah, I know it was the 70s, and it was nowhere near as bad as say the cat vs. snake fight in Jackie Chan's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, but it was still unsettling to see that kitty roughly grabbed and choked. And then it was thrown on the floor like a rag doll!

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by kem71

Were any fellow cat lovers disturbed by that one scene of animal cruelty? Yeah, I know it was the 70s, and it was nowhere near as bad as say the cat vs. snake fight in Jackie Chan's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, but it was still unsettling to see that kitty roughly grabbed and choked. And then it was thrown on the floor like a rag doll!

idk man, it looked like a trick shot after it was grabbed and was clearly a fake cat cut in

[RestlessEye]

Finally watched this last night. Beautiful image. I’ve never seen it look better.

And yeah, definitely a fake cat.

[El_Fez]

Watching this as part of the 72 nasties, I've (unfortunately) seen some pretty intense animal snuff. So this didnt bother me all that much, especially as it's pretty clearly a fake cat.

[levcore]

Even fake cats should have rights.

[BobSimms]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

I just finished watching this excellent release. Now it's time for the xtras. Probably will be in my top 5 for 2019. Question no mention of the Cinematographer on the credits. Did you the director, Alfred Soles, did that as well, but wasn't mentioned for some reason?

I believe Sole said that he used a few different photographers because he had to stop and restart production several times and couldn’t get the same person each time. He said the guy who ended up getting the main cinematography credit was a butthead (he didn’t say butthead though). In the end title sequence, there are several additional cameramen credited. So if a cinematography credit is missing in Arrow’s booklet, that could be why.

[Kyle15]

From what I can gather, Sole was essentially the "de-facto" cinematographer and that's why there were so many and there isn't a credit in the booklet.
He wanted every shot to be done his way and butted heads with them all. He didn't have the operator know-how and that's what he needed a cinematographer for. If he'd ever dabbled more in photography before Alice he probably would have shot it all himself.

[balthazar_bee]

Very enjoyable film, and I'm characteristically impressed by Arrow's blu-ray. Noticed a couple of things.

First, the end credits run without music, but the older audio commentary featuring the director has creepy music playing over the end credits. Just strange is all.

Speaking of differences though, I'm interested in variations between the Holy Terror cut and the Communion cut. It would've been nice if Arrow had included a guide to the differences, a la Driller Killer. All it notes in the menu are different opening credits and various editorial changes throughout. Does anyone know where I can read more about other things unique to the Holy Terror cut (or even know themselves)?

[seamus11]

Originally Posted by balthazar_bee

First, the end credits run without music, but the older audio commentary featuring the director has creepy music playing over the end credits. Just strange is all.

That music was never part of the original version, Sole added it later for Laserdic (and DVD) release...

[White Dang]

By far the worst cat scene is in Melancholie der Engel. Actually don't even watch the movie.

[The Great Owl]

Karen, a young girl played by Brooke Shields in her first feature film role, is the clear favorite of her mother, played by Linda Miller, and is resultantly tormented by her more withdrawn and diabolical older sister, Alice, played by Paula E. Sheppard, who delights in stalking people while dressed in a yellow raincoat and eerie translucent masks. Just minutes before her first Holy Communion, Karen is strangled to death in a church transept by a masked assailant in a yellow raincoat, and her body is set on fire inside a bench compartment. Alice, who was found with her sister's ceremony veil, is the clear suspect because of her troubled past, but her estranged father, played by Niles McMaster, is determined to prove her innocence. Meanwhile, family members and acquaintances are picked off by mysterious stabbings and murders at the hands of an unknown killer.

The 1976 horror feature, Alice, Sweet Alice, which was directed by Alfred Sole and originally released under the title of Communion, is often categorized as a slasher, but it predates that genre by a couple of years and takes its cues more overtly from the Italian giallo films of that decade, which were generally characterized by colorful cinematography and narratives about murders by unidentified villains. This movie is also an acknowledged homage to the 1973 Nicolas Roeg masterpiece, Don't Look Now, and its images of a girl in a red raincoat. At its core, though, this screen story functions as an unsettling examination of family dysfunction, grief, religion, and psychological trauma. The primary mystery is solved during the conclusion, but the final camera shot hints that things will never again be okay in our world.

A few years later, when Brooke Shields became big, this film was re-released in theaters under the title of Holy Terror in order to capitalize on her career success. In the original incarnation of the movie, she only has a few minutes of screen time during the beginning scenes, but her presence nonetheless reverberates throughout the feature as symbolism for the death of innocence. Paula E. Sheppard, who was miraculously 19 years old during the filming, steals the show, however, as the title character. Sheppard only had one other acting appearance, in the avant-garde 1982 sci-fi movie, Liquid Sky, but these two roles are more than enough to seal her iconic status as a more insidious and sadistic version of Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Her detached presence and her mean-spirited antics, including teasing an obese landlord, played by Alphonso DeNoble, and a church housekeeper, played by Mildred Clinton, are the driving forces of this wonderfully strange venture.

Alice, Sweet Alice tips its hand earlier than expected regarding the mystery at hand, but that is the only tonal deviation that stands in the way of its being regarded as the closest that American filmmakers ever came to emulating the spirit of the giallo genre. Even after the big reveal, though, the “why” is more fascinating to us than the “who.”

This Arrow Blu-ray delivers a top-notch presentation of the main feature, with a beautifully flimic look and great audio quality. It will take me the better part of the afternoon for me to go through all of the extras, but the interviews, the location feature, and the first commentary track, with Sole, are supremely engaging so far.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by levcore

Even fake cats should have rights.

I gather you're not a fan of Pet Sematary. Or Tales From the Darkside: The Movie. Or Cat's Eye. Or any film with fake cat cruelty lol.

[seamus11]

I finally received my copy and I can confirm the disc plays even on my Panasonic Region B player with Top Menu trick ☺

[DVD Phreak]

Widescreen vs. full screen version (from a 1987 VHS edition).





Many films were shot in "open matte" in those days, which allowed more picture shown on top and bottom than left and right for full screen, and vice versa for widescreen. The Shining, Terminator 2, and many others in that era were shot like this. FS and WS home videos of these films were usually presented in this manner, which was intended by the studios and sometimes the filmmakers themselves. (The FS/WS co-existence was a major headache and confusion back then, as older viewers remember. It seems such a distant memory now, and may even be unknown to younger viewers.)

Some of you may feel that some headshots in the Alice Sweet Alice Blu-ray are too close to the edges, whereas in the full screen version, there is more head room and/or chin room. But then, some may think the full screen version has too much head and/or chin room. This was another headache caused by the open matte practice, since it was impossible to decide where to crop or not crop a picture that would look ideal to every viewer.

[Monterey Jack]

Got my copy today in exemplary condition from Deep Discount. I may actually frame the mini-poster contained within, because the newly-commissioned cover art is so cool (what are the dimensions, BTW?). Looking forward to giving this a fresh look, as my first viewing of the film was on a non-anamorphic DVD a handful of years ago.

[Monterey Jack]

GORGEOUS transfer.

Also watched all of the video-based extras tonight, which were fun. I just wish there were an option to watch the movie with the Alice, Sweet Alice title card.

[jonaand]

the comparasion between Arrow or 88Films , which is better