“Alice, Sweet Alice” (1976)- anyone else find this movie extra creepy?

Totally, OP

That bleak NJ setting-

The film stock

The creepy fat man

The creepy actors-

Its bleak as balls.

R1 yes. You’re right. And that NJ setting. Very unsettling. That same area is probably all skyscrapers on 2022

Another eerie 70s flick.

Yes, very scary, proving you don't need big stars or a big budget when it's done right.

Who said you need big stars for slasher flicks?

The fat, bald neighbor with the stained pants seriously creeped me out when I was little.

It's been years since I've seen it but now I want to go watch it. As someone else above said, the creepy 70s film stock really adds to the experience.

The recent remastered bluray gave me a whole new appreciation for this movie - it’s actually beautifully filmed!

R8 that is what you’re seeing in the OP. It’s the Blu-ray quality entire movie

Love it. It's so '70s black-comedy gimmicky, gritty and campy. And I think the mother's sister who comes to stay with and "help" the family for a while, is certainly Datalounge material. :)

It doesn’t feel like a dark comedy at all.

Maybe it's just the make-up/lighting, but each of the actors looks vaguely ghoulish.

Wasn’t it normal back then for white people to be pale? Most didn’t get tans like now

Movies like this can make your stomach hurt

And Brooke gets first billing in the titles?

yes, it got renamed just as all recorded musicals are now known as slime tutorials. One part skirting around other nation's laws, another part because of translation, and another because of cultural necessity - among some nations, particularly where literacy (and in turn, comprehension) ws low, it's more common place to describe the plot in the title... of course, there are other nations, where one was expected to be poetical and have inanely long titles but most of the latter conformed to rest of the world and went shorter.

The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane was much creepier...

likely benign to people afraid of masks and require boogiemen, spooks and scares...

vs

an everyday brat from your neighborhood; a matter of circumstances, unchecked mental health and community apathy. . .

which is why we rather need to adopt more public boarding schools, if it was good enough for the natives, it should be good enough for the rest of America's snotnosed, germ spreading, little bastards.

I can't wait for a Broadway musical version.

You’re very odd r18

It couldn't be worse than Prada, r19.

R16 what a weird and unnecessary long ramble.

The creepiest thing ever filmed in Paterson - other than the evening news.

That movie had so many titles, including Communion.

BTW co-star Linda Miller was the daughter of Jackie Gleason, the ex-wife of Jason Miller and the mother of Jason Patric

r21 Is this your first time online? Does your mommy know you're here?

The Broadway musical version will be entitled "Put On A Happy Face!"

Are these the fembots from The Bionic Woman 👩 ?

My best friend and I watched it about twelve years ago, and were tickled to death by Kay Kyser's 'Three Little Fishes,' which is played in the film. We'd never heard it before, and were amazed at the apparent bathroom humor of the refrain, which sounded like

'Poop-poop, did 'em, dat 'em - wet 'em, too

And he swam and he swam all over the dam.'

Overall, the most creepy thing to me was the all-pervasive Catholicism of the characters and community depicted in the film. I'm not from 'Catholic World,' so it was the most alien thing in the film to me.

R26 - You've totally NAILED IT and beat me to so many of the same observations! WELL DONE!!

What is the deeper meaning of this film? What does it all mean? I've watched it many times, and am fascinated by it. But what is it saying?

What is any slasher film saying?

I think, r29, that they're saying "You think *you* got it bad?".

[quote]And Brooke gets first billing in the titles?

It was redistributed after Brooke got famous and the titles were altered to give her top billing, even though her character is extremely minor.

The actress playing "Alice" was 20! No wonder she was so damn creepy.

Also, wtf is this trailer?! "Alice was too old to play with dolls, and too young to make love"

R31 it was the 70s. Things were not like they are now.

“Licorice Pizza” situations were common back then.

20, r31...20??? OMG, I have to go back and look. I had wondered if they'd altered the titles later.

quote]"Alice was too old to play with dolls, and too young to make love"

At least she wasn't high school honor student by day, Hollywood hooker by night. Any love for Homebodies?

The actress was born in 1957. The movie was filmed in 1975. She was 17 going on when they started filming. She turned 18 while filming. She was 19 when it came out.

[quote]R15 And Brooke gets first billing in the titles?

i think that was only when they rereleased it under a new title, years later, after Shields had become famous.

OK, r34. I went back and watched a bit. 17 makes more sense.

It was originally titled “Communion” when originally released in 1976 (and that was the title in London as well). In 1977 it was acquired by Allied Artists and changed to “Alice, Sweet Alice” upon its re-release. And then in 1981 it was re-released again due to Brooke Shields new fame as “Holy Terror” with Brooke Shields getting top billing.

At some point it was “The Mask Murders” down the line.

It is mostly known as “Alice, Sweet Alice” in modern day

The Director and Writer of this movie, Alfred Sole, died a few months ago at 78.

So young.

Creepy...

This has been a longtime favorite of mine, and is probably in my top 10 favorite horror films. I saw it as a kid (rented from a Hollywood Video--remember those?) and never forgot it. It's elegant despite its budget limitations, and full of weird idiosyncrasies and bizarre characters (the obese pedo and the hysterical, constantly-yelling aunt are unforgettable). I was ecstatic when Arrow Video released it on Blu-ray some years ago—it has never looked better. The musical score in it is especially haunting, though I'm 99% sure it was aped from the score for "Klute" (1971).

It's prime giallo.

This is nothing like Giallo. They used glamour as part of the mystique

This is another film that could never be made nearly as effective in modern day.

The Boomers hated kids. Lots of Devil-baby movies in the 70s. They finally started producing Millennial brats of their own in the 80s.

Is Leonard Maltin posting here now?