Alice Paula Sheppard stars as the titular 12-year-old, Alice, who is not really that sweet, it seems at first, as she bickers with her mother and delights in ruining her sister's stuff and scaring the shit out of her. Check this out: her sister is played by 9-year-old Brooke Shields in her film debut. but Shields is bumped off early, showing up dead to her own first communion, murdered by a raincoat wearing, creepy-masked girl who fits Alice's description!
Alice has a penchant for keeping somewhat macabre mementos, and running around in a creepy mask and raincoat, so she's the prime suspect. At first we're like, yeah it's obviously Alice. But then we start to wonder: maybe Alice is just a slightly maladjusted but otherwise okay kid, and something else is afoot.
Her mother (Linda Miller) doesn't know what to think but her aunt (Jane Lowry), who is also attacked but survives, is sure Alice is behind it all. Also on the list of grown ups who have it in for the child is Mildred Clinton as the local priest's housekeeper, even as the priest himself (Rudolph Willrich) attempts to help Alice's mother and her estranged father (Niles McMaster) get to the bottom of things.
A review of ALICE, SWEET ALICE would not be complete without mentioning the striking presence of gay night club bouncer turned actor Alphonso DeNoble as Alice's family's landlord - a morbidly obese child molester who lives in squalor and is exactly the kind of guy who would end up on Alice's hit list, if indeed she is the killer. Whenever this guy is on screen he steals the show. He was only in a couple more movies after this one before he died, but this performance should cement his place in the horror hall of fame.
The movie itself is only okay. The gritty 70s style, the creepy mask the killer wears, and all the performances are great. Unfortunately the flick is probably about 30 minutes longer than it needs to be, so it drags in spots that should be full of suspense.
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