A figure in a yellow raincoat and a translucent mask strangles a young girl in a church during her first communion.

ALICE, SWEET ALICE (1976) follows the aftermath, as suspicion for the murder of young Karen Spages falls on her older sister Alice, a sullen, withdrawn girl who has spent her life watching her sibling get the attention she never received. Detectives, a troubled priest, an obese landlord with a fondness for cats, and Alice's own estranged father circle the case, while the killer in the raincoat keeps striking.

Alfred Sole directed and co-wrote the film with Rosemary Ritvo. Paula E. Sheppard, playing Alice, gives one of the most unsettling child performances in American horror. Brooke Shields appears in a small early role as Karen.

Beneath its slasher trappings sits a genuinely disturbing study of jealousy, repression, and the failures of family and church.