Communion (1976)

(AKA: Alice, Sweet Alice - Holy Terror)

My rating - 8/10

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When a young girl is brutally murdered while attending her first holy communion and a series of stabbings soon follow, the parents of the victim start to believe her young sister could be to blame.

This wonderful thriller, one of my favourite movies, still holds up very well today despite it's low budget. A nine year old Brooke Shields gets her first role as Karen, the poor young girl who's first communion was also her last. Paula E. Sheppard is great playing the twelve year old bratty Alice (she was actually 19 at the time of filming). The cast is great, the script is very good and the whole movie has plenty of tense and sometimes creepy atmosphere running through it.

Special shoutout goes to Alphonso DeNoble as the obese and sleazy neighbour, a character that can genuinely make your skin crawl. There's some quite brutal violence, although it's wisely not over used and not too gory which really helps in this case. Of course I'll highly recommend this one to those who've never seen it. Personally I prefer the original UK VHS release version from the early 80s as it contained the full uncut version. The DVDs/Blu-rays contain a new re-edited directors approved version but it's still worth seeking out.

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