There are a lot of influential genre films from the 1970s, with releases like The Exorcist and Jaws spawning dozens of imitators. However it's more unusual to see a movie that seems to have taken a few notes from Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now. While this is not a direct copy, there are at least a few visual nods here and there amongst what is generally a murder mystery plot. The colour red is swapped for a lurid yellow, which I guess is pretty apt for a story that involves a lot more slasher scenes. But there's more going on here than just a series of shocking deaths, in a story that involves themes of guilt, youth, denial and the loss of innocence.
Alice (Paula E. Sheppard) is having a tough time at home when it seems as though her younger sister Karen (Brooke Shields) is getting more attention than her. She's younger and cuter, and she gets given gifts while also being included in the local Catholic church's events. Alice on the other hand is a mean spirited bully who enjoys scaring her sister by wearing masks and causing mischief. But while this kind of sibling rivalry is a perfectly natural part of growing up, things are about to take a rather nasty turn during Karen's first communion. During the ceremony Alice appears on stage in her sister's place, hoping to be part of the big day. However it's soon discovered that Karen's disappearance from the room is because things have gone horribly wrong behind the scenes.
The religious overtones and the suggestion that one child would murder the other is of course why this film was frowned upon on its initial release, but it's far more interesting than its reputation as a morally lacking horror film. Alice is a troubled child who keeps a lot of strange items hidden in the basement of the apartment building, which results in her being the prime suspect. But she's also a girl becoming a teenager with conflicting emotions and ideas about her place in the family. It doesn't help that her father has left her mother and remarried, or that her aunt Annie (Jane Lowry) who comes over to visit is so highly strung. Things are only about to get worse after the police and a psychiatrist get involved.
There's a lot of family melodrama after the death of Karen, and not all the acting is particularly good. In fact some of it is laughably overwrought and as things progress the film begins to show signs of a darkly comic streak under all the death and mayhem. Annie jumps between sincere to histrionic, while Alice's mother Catherine (Linda Miller) often seems too relaxed about everything. Meanwhile their overweight landlord Mr. Alphonso (Alphonso DeNoble) gives a bizarre performance as a grotesque cat obsessed pervert that is certainly a slasher victim if there ever was one. The eclectic cast lend everything a kind of haphazard tone that veers between absurd to truly nasty.
Generally speaking this is a grimy, filthy looking movie with the occasional splashes of primary coloured plastic and gaudy Halloween masks. These glimpses of youthful glee are often buried in a world of drab wallpaper and damp concrete, or twisted by their use in a series of murders. Alice herself is very convincing as a childish central character who enjoys a good cockroach prank every so often, but also has signs of developing maturity as the story unfolds. Could she also be a killer? At times the police and some of her family members seem to think so. Purely as a tale about kids becoming young adults there are a lot of fascinating moments. But this isn't all a well rounded plot full of deep characters, there are other less effective inclusions.
One theme in particular that crops ups in the third act is the idea of religious guilt and how it might push someone to madness. Is all the ceremony and superstition to blame? The writers clearly weren't fans of the Catholic church. But while the ideas about wearing masks and breaking traditions are recurring elements throughout, the suggestion that this was all brought about by one past event is less convincing. It's an interesting turn of events and of course you've got to have a good twist in a storyline like this, but it could have been handled with more tact. There are times at which Alice feels like she's being sidelined in her own story while the various detective and murder subplots play out, but these are minor complaints.
It's a moody and interesting piece of work that horror nerds and even fans of Italian slasher stories will appreciate. Perhaps calling it an overlooked gem is a little strong, but there's enough here to recommend. It has enough weird atmosphere and a lot of strange point-of-view shots, as well as a melancholy score that emphasises the mood. Not all of the acting works, and overall it's very rough around the edges. But small inconsistencies aside this is a good mixture of the bleak, the brutal, the blackly comedic, and the sometimes thought provoking. As usual the whole video nasty thing is a mystery when looking at the film with a modern lens, and though it's very much a product of its time its worth checking out.
4/5
