Communion | 1976 | USA | Alfred Sole

A tense and well-acted proto-slasher that takes huge inspiration from the rich world of giallo films, Alfred Sole’s murder mystery is more commonly known today by its original title of Alice, Sweet Alice. Young Karen is about to participate in her first Holy Communion, until a masked figure decides to throttle the child to death and set her corpse ablaze in a church. All suspicion falls upon her spiteful sister Alice, whose behaviour doesn’t exactly deflect the accusations being hurled at her. The killings continue however, leading everyone to blame Alice for the attacks, despite the motive for the killings being somewhat closer to home for the reluctant parents to accept. Stylish, bleak and featuring some highly mean-spirited violent scenes, including a knife attack on a lady’s feet and legs, as well as a brick being forced into someone’s mouth, Communion is a rare gem amongst lower budget chillers.