Brooke Shields encounters "holy terror" when Arrow Video gives the definitive treatment to ALICE, SWEET ALICE on Blu-ray.

When young Karen Spages (Brooke Shields, ENDLESS LOVE) is murdered on the day of her first communion, suspicion naturally points towards her troubled older sister Alice (Paula Sheppard, LIQUID SKY) who stalks her apartment building in weird masks and plays cruel pranks on her family and neighbors. The only people who do not seem to suspect Alice are her beleaguered mother Catherine (Linda Miller, AN UNMARRIED WOMAN) and her estranged father Dom (Niles McMaster, BLOODSUCKING FREAKS) who returns for the funeral. While the police focus on Alice - especially after her domineering aunt Annie (Jane Lowry) hysterically claims Alice stabbed her - Dom carries out his own investigation with the help of his former brother-in-law Father Tom (Rudolph Willrich, NINE 1/2 WEEKS) with Annie's own troubled daughter Angela (Kathy Rich) as his prime suspect. When another murder occurs while Alice is under psychiatric observation, she is released but returns to her old tricks even as the killer continues to stalk her family. Is she the final victim or a kindred spirit?

An ambitious Paterson, New Jersey-lensed period sleeper that has justifiably become a cult classic – in part due to the presence of a then-unknown Shields and the film's unfortunate public domain status throughout the years after Allied Artist changed the title from COMMUNION without copyrighting it – ALICE, SWEET ALICE has been considered an American giallo due not so much to its knife-wielding stalker as its exploration of the twisted psyches of seemingly obvious red herring characters: including Alphonso DeNoble (NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES) Fellini-grotesque apartment building landlord and Peter Bosche as a senile monsignor driving parish housekeeper Mrs. Tredoni (Mildred Clinton, SERPICO) understandably batty, as well as the religious and familial pressures that shape monsters. The film was the first of three mainstream films from writer/director Alfred Sole (TANYA'S ISLAND) who graduated from the University of Florence with a degree in architecture and would later became a production designer.

Produced as COMMUNION and released theatrically as Allied Artists as ALICE, SWEET ALICE, the film was reissued in 1981 as HOLY TERROR by Dynamite Entertainment – they of the recut LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES as THE 7 BROTHERS MEET DRACULA and retitlings of SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA and FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE – to capitalize on the more recent fame of Shields with PRETTY BABY and THE BLUE LAGOON (indeed, the trailer tries to make it seem as though Shields is Alice). The film fell into the public domain and hit VHS in a number of editions from the legit Allied Artist, Spotlite Video (a sublabel of NTA Entertainment), and Paragon's King of Video to the likes of United American, Goodtimes, Neon Video, and Genesis Home Video. Director Sole sought to reclaim his copyright on the film by releasing it in a five-minute shorter director's cut for the 1997 Roan Group laserdisc with a commentary by director Sole and editor Edward Salier (SILENT SCREAM) moderated by future Blue Underground president William Lustig. The cuts were restored to Anchor Bay's 1999 DVD and Hen's Tooth's 2007 DVD, both of which featured the same non-anamorphic 1.85:1 letterboxed transfer and the commentary track. In the UK, 88 Films put out a DVD in 2014 with the commentary but the anamorphic transfer was an upscale of the existing letterboxed master.

While Warner Bros. retained the original negative as part of their acquisition of the Allied Artists library, they had proven uncooperative in the past with efforts of Sole and the likes of VCI in the United States to produce a new master. In the U.K., 88 Films put out a region free Blu-ray from a 2K scan of 35mm positive elements of the HOLY TERROR reissue that was a definite improvement over everything that has come before it but not without its issues. The attempt to get pure whites out of the image made everyone seem a tad pale while also perhaps washing out more minute details in walls and textures, and the color correction leaned a bit more towards the blue than it should even in overcast and rainy day exteriors (a split-screen restoration demo, however, revealed just how bad it looked before).

Arrow's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray is finally sourced from a new 2K of the original negative elements and is definitive in ways beyond just the transfer. Wood surfaces gleam, skin tones are healthier, and the more delineated color reproduction and contrasts greatly enhance the decrepit atmosphere which extends beyond Mr. Alphonso's apartment and Alice's basement. Darker scenes are also no longer as murky. The LPCM 1.0 mono track conveys the film's lullaby scoring and some Herrmann-esque string stabs to jolting effect. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided. The feature presentation features the COMMUNION title card while the ALICE, SWEET ALICE sequence is presented as a separate extra (1:13), but the major extra is the 1981 HOLY TERROR re-release version presented in its entirety (107:13 versus COMMUNIONS 107:05). The re-release version was recreated using the feature HD master and Warner's archival tape master as a guide. The menu notes that there are some slight editing variations, but the only thing I noticed was the Allied Artists opening logo and the HOLY TERROR title sequence which moved Shields' credit up ahead of the other performers and reformatted some of the other cards.

Ported over from the previous editions is the Sole/Saler audio commentary moderated by future Blue Underground president Bill Lustig who worked on the film's make-up effects. Lustig and Salier complement Sole's ambition in realizing the period on the budget and he reveals that he had integrated locations into the script while restoring houses in the area and that his inspirations for the film included DON'T LOOK NOW and DIABOLIQUE. He also reveals that he shopped the area junk shops for wardrobe and props and that he found his niche as a production designer in directing the film. He and Salier point out the offscreen contributions including future SESAME STREET composer Stephen Lawrence, Bob Fosse/Brian De Palma re-recording mixer Dick Vorisek who was contacted by a technician at Technicolor who was impressed by the film's rushes, and future Academy Award nominee Craig McKay (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) who helped Salier sift through the 1:1 shooting ratio's worth of footage to cut the film together. Lustig also likens the film's style to British and European filmmakers who were inspired by fine art as opposed to other Americans influenced by television. The remarks made about the color correction of the laserdisc master and the recutting performed on the laserdisc remain.

Film historian Richard Harland Smith is also present on a new commentary track that covers a lot of the same information from the commentary and the other extras, but it does so in a more organized manner with his comments accompanying the onscreen action more consistently than the Sole/Salier track. Smith provides additional factoids from Shields' autobiography in which she recalls her audition, reveals that Geraldine Page (WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE?) was offered the role of Mrs. Tredoni as well as some more background on Sole's obscenity trial for his porno film DEEP SLEEP, his work as a production designer as well as his efforts to preserve some of the location used in the film, ties Sole's remarks about being inspired by DON'T LOOK NOW to the yellow raincoat which leads many of the characters to mistake the assailant for other characters, and DIABOLIQUE in that Sole's original concept was about a woman who kills her sister in a church and that neighbor/co-writer Rosemary Ritvo pushed him to turn it into a mystery. He also lovingly discusses the many supporting performers, who had few film credits but plenty of stage work as well as the significance of the film's 1961 setting.

"First Communion" (18:42) is a new interview with director Sole focusing on the origins of the film starting with raising $25,000 from his poker buddies to produced DEEP SLEEP, the film's success (illustrated with newspaper articles) and the fall-out with the trials (including a New Jersey one for "private lewdness") which nevertheless lead to ALICE, SWEET ALICE. He reveals that Sheppard had been offered movie roles previously but she said Sole was the only one who approached her who did not seem like a creep, that he got the movie finished in spite of the film's cinematographer, and speaks highly of Salier. "Alice on My Mind" (14:59) is an interview with composer Lawrence who plays some of the cues on piano, and discusses the themes associated with setting and character. "In the Name of the Father" (16:02) is an interview with actor McMaster who recalls playing college football, going to Vietnam, and having difficulty finding work upon return, getting into real estate before trying modeling and then acting with ALICE, SWEET ALICE coming along a month after he arrived in New York. He speaks highly of Sole and also recalls Clinton's difficulty in her climactic scene with him. Sadly, he does not mention his role in BLOODSUCKING FREAKS the same year.