20 Cult Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die
13. Alice Sweet Alice (1976)
It’s generally a bit of a taboo in film to combine children with murder. Usually that means filmmakers are wary of killing a kid in a movie – that’s crossing the line – but it also works the other way too. Alice Sweet Alice isn’t scared of such taboos: not only does it include a child being killed mere minutes into its runtime, its entire plot also revolves around the notion that another child may be the one doing the killing.
The child in question is the titular Alice, a badly-behaved 12-year-old girl who constantly bullies her younger sister Karen. With her parents divorced and her dad out of town, it’s perhaps understandable that Alice isn’t getting along with her sister or her mother. It’s not long, however, before things go seriously out of control.
Film historians will likely recall Alice Sweet Alice as Brooke Shields’ first movie, a distinction that too often overshadows director Alfred Sole’s film itself. Its future A-lister aside, Alice Sweet Alice is one of the creepiest movies on this list, and a lot of that has to do with the killer’s grinning mask (take a look above and try not to squirm) and the overall dreamlike feel Sole gives this dose of blasphemous taboo destruction.