A jealous 12 year old child named Alice Spages (Paula E. Sheppard) feels that she is not getting attention for her family as her younger sister Karen (Brooke Shields) seems to get all of it and tries to scare her family by wearing masks or acts rebellious but none of this works.
During a communion at the St. Michaels Church, Karen is strangled to death by someone wearing Alice's mask as well as wearing a St. Michaels yellow coat and then burned to a crisp before her first holy communian and ALice finds her dead.
Alice doesn't see eye to eye with her Aunt Annie DeLorenze (Jane Lowry) and ALice mouths off at her. Next, Annie is stabbed numerous times in the leg by someone in the outfit that murdered Karen and accuses Alice for this and is sent to an institution under the protest of her parents and their friend Father Tom.
Alice's father Dominick Spages (Niles McMaster) seeks evidences to prove the innocence of Alice but can be looking for a deadly consequence while doing so.

An impressive moment on two dysfunctional siblings giving the film a good start for when the terror happens. We also have a good shot on putting her face near a picture of mother Mary and putting her hand on it.
We spot some good shots on one of these siblings chasing after the other with her wearing a mask in a big empty warehouse and then taking off her mask wearing another creepy mask and getting aggressive towards her which almost pychs you out.
We spot a good moment at a cathedral witha preacher named Father Tom performing a ceremony and then a shot of a corpse there being dragged then being lit on fire in a container as this delivers more shocks while spotting this as well as making the story mysterious.
There's a good scene with the brat Alice Spraggs dropping a glass of milk and her Auntie Annie DeLorenze getting aggressive and then Alice screaming in terror as well as acting obnoxious with her Mom trying to tell her to stop being disrespectful in which these scene's are impressive making it look like a convincingly dysfunctional family.
We spot a good shot on a lazy landlord Mr. Alphonso lying on a couch with Alice peeking in and then acting nasty towards him as well as grabbing onto a cheque and getting into a hissy fit about it. Alphonso comes up to her and trying to pursue on molesting her which looked pretty twisted and she does well getting evil by grabbing a kitten of his... well I won't get into that but this was hard to watch and I found this situation unnecessary.
There's a good shot on Annie walking down the stairs with a masked killer bloodily stabbing her and she screams in terror with good spinning shots on the camera too.
We spot a good confrontation with Alice's mother Catherine getting intense with Annie in a hospital room and a good close up on her with tears streaming down her face and then going in hysterics.
There's a good discussion between Catherine with Alice in a psych ward with a dysfunctional conversation which looked disturbing too and fits in for an intense horror film like this.
We have a good moment with a character Dominic Spages looking around the abandoned warehouse and walking up some stairs with a surprise shot onwho the masked killer really is taking him by surprise which was a great jumping moment. We also see this maniac compulsively whacking him with a rock which makes you cringe as well as the mask removed and going crazy while rolling him off the top of the warehouse tied up.
Then it gets good when the final intense moments starts to happen which involved Alice as well as the scumbag Mr. Alphonso in which the situations looked pretty intense.
Bottom line is that this is a film that reigned as a cult classic and horror fantatics suggest to see. It's very intense, disturbing for sure and controversial at times with a scene of animal cruelty I found very unneccessary but well directed and incredibly mysterious in many spots and borrowed heavily from psychological horror flicks like Psycho.
Just imagine having a dysfunctional family and imagine if your child was rambunctious enough to kill is every family's nightmare. It totally psychs you out or imagining when you were that age and disrespected your elders to the point you possibly could be evil as it doesn't give you a good feeling at all.
However, the film doesn't really go anywhere and pick up the pace. The film isn't overly terrible but not that good either. Watch it if you're in the mood for an average film as that's all it is but many of you may disagree with me.

The acting is very passable as lead actress Linda Miller (Catherine Spages) shows a good sane attitude trying to be strong about stuff as well as having good intensity for the other scene's and nice crying emotions. She proved to be very versatile with her part in the film.
Paula E. Sheppard (Alice Spages) really came across well as a nasty brat and suspect in the film as Alice and really made her actions very disturbing and evillike too making you really wonder if she is a bloodthirsty killer in the film.
Mildred Clinton (Mrs. Tredoni) totally brought a mysterious part in her role acting very calm and then getting crazy like a maniac. Another drawing card to the film and she made sure she pulled it off well. Her energy was at a perfect and intense pace.
Jane Lowry (Aunt Annie DeLorenze) really brought her attention to the audience as well with her bitchy and nagging attitude in the film who knew how to really act disturbed along with great crying emotions totally losing it when she needed to bringing a great intensity here.
Alphonso DeNoble (Mr. Alphonso) really stood out in his supporting role as a slobby overweight type of a resident in the film and knew how to act creepy too.

There's are many bloody stabbings with the victims in the chest, leg and neck

We have many sliding violin noises as well as the screechy music in a Psycho like fashion when there's certain moments for the terror like the bloody stabbings plus we have some low music too for the mysterious moments. There's a nice little chant for the closing credits to top it all off all done by Stephen Lawrence.

Aunt Annie DeLorenze: She's dead! Karen's dead! She's dead! Karen's dead!

Aunt Annie DeLorenze: Angela, stop eating! Haven't you had enough? Jim, help me clean up this mess. You don't need that drink!

Mr. Alphonso: Psst. Where are you going?
Alice Spages: None of your business, fatso.
Mr. Alphonso: Uh, I'm not feeling well and stores don't deliver on Sundays.
[he makes fake coughing noises]
Mr. Alphonso: How would you like to go to the store for me, please?
[Alice walks off]
Mr. Alphonso: That little bitch.

Alice Spages: There's so much junk around this filthy place, I bet you never clean it. It smells like cats' piss.

Mr. Alphonso: [about Karen's funeral] I heard everyone leave. It's all over, huh? Well, you die and they put you in the ground. Such a shame. Such a pretty girl too. Too bad she was the one to end up in the box.
Alice Spages: My mother thought you could use some cake, fatty.
[hands him cake]
Mr. Alphonso: Thank your mother for me. Such a lovely lady. God always takes the pretty ones.

Mr. Alphonso: [to Alice who has brought a rent check from her mother to him] Give me that check!
Mr. Alphonso: [Alice crunches the check in her hands as he grabs it] You little bitch! Look what you've done to this check!

Catherine Spages: [about her ex-husband] I don't know why I'm so worried. I just can't imagine where he could be.
Mrs. Tredoni: Maybe you are afraid that God will send St. Michael to take another of your loved ones. When St. Michael took my little girl, I only thought of how cruel God was.
Catherine Spages: Mrs. Tredoni, I'm sorry. I never knew you had a little girl.
Mrs. Tredoni: God took her from me on the day of her first communion, don't you see? He waited until then to teach me that children pay for the sins of their parents. And then I was sent here to look after Father, not you!
[points butcher knife at catherine]

Mrs. Tredoni: [accusingly to priest] But you give it to the whore!