An early proto-slasher horror movie, 1976’s Alice, Sweet Alice was written & directed by Alfred Sole, and we’ve learned the sad news this week that the filmmaker has passed away.
Alice, Sweet Alice notably marked the feature debut of a young Brooke Shields, and it was Alfred Sole’s second feature as director. In Alice, Sweet Alice, “A divorced Catholic couple’s life is turned upside down when one of their two adolescent daughters is suspected of her younger sister’s brutal murder during her first holy communion and a series of subsequent stabbings.”
Alfred Sole had directed 1972’s Deep Sleep prior to making his mark on the horror genre with Alice, Sweet Alice, with subsequent films on his resume including 1980’s Tanya’s Island, 1982’s comedy-horror spoof Pandemonium, and 1984’s TV movie Cheeseball Presents.
Alfred Sole also wrote two episodes of Paramount’s “Friday the 13th: The Series” back in the 1980s, as well as one episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” in the same decade. As a production designer, Sole worked on films including Halloweentown, Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies, Halloweentown High, and S. Darko, and most recently the “MacGyver” TV reboot.
Horror filmmaker Dante Tomaselli, Sole’s cousin, wrote on Facebook this week, “It is with great sadness, I announce the loss of my beloved cousin, Alfred Sole. Just this morning I sent Alfred an email excitedly sharing the progress of my upcoming film project and we were set to speak on the phone today! I’m devastated.”
Alfred Sole was 78 years old.