Alyce Kills

source: Alyce Kills

Was this supposed to be a thriller? Horror movie? Commentary on what happens when you have unprotected sex with drug dealers? Or drugs? Or this is what Hunter Thompson's world would be if he were a chick? Huge skip it moment.

After accidentally knocking her best friend off a roof, Alyce (Jade Dornfeld) is haunted by guilt and delves into a brutal nightmare wonderland of sex, drugs and violence, her mind tearing itself apart along with anyone else who gets in her way. As others have mentioned, trying to put this film into any one genre is pretty challenging. The marketers seem to want this to be a ghost story, but that is a very small part of what really happens. Following Alyce's journey is not horror, but something a little more than drama. The attempt to draw from "Alice in Wonderland" is strange. Clearly we have "Alyce" and her friend "Carroll Lewis", which are obvious references. We even have James Duval, who will be known by many as playing a rabbit in "Donnie Darko" (though his character here is anything but Alyce's guide). And there the similarities end. Director Jay Lee has moved up in the world from his days (not long ago) making "Zombie Strippers". Much of this is a "really satisfying slow burn" (in the words of Nikki Hopeman), but has more to offer than just well-paced suspense. Others have made interesting comparisons, with Chuck Bowen labeling it "a blunt, trashy fusion of 'Repulsion' and 'Bartleby, the Scrivener'." Brian Tallerico was reminded of "great films like 'Repulsion' and 'May'". Unlike these two, I did not see the "Repulsion" connection, but that is a high praise. Bowen says the film "is distinctive because Lee doesn't invite us to sympathize with Alyce; she isn't a doomed wallflower in the tradition of the heroes of Carrie, May, or many others". Quite true -- she is no hero or anti-hero, but merely the protagonist we follow, whether her path is justified or not, sane or insane. And that makes it a stronger film.

Alyce was an amazing treat for someone who has seen many films and is not easily surprised and I am very picky about movies especially horror films. What drew me to this movie in the first place was James Duvall because I absolutely love everything he is in from Donnie Darko to Greg Araki films Doom Generation and Nowhere. But who really shines in this film aside from James is Jade Dornfled as Alyce. She seamlessly goes from a sympathetic sweet friend to absolutely batshit nuts. The acting in this movie is very well done and the atmosphere is very dark and heavy but very enjoyable on a bizarre and at times disturbing level. This movie goes there where others are afraid to go and that is rare. The weaving of the Alice in wonderland story to the tale of this girl and her own journey "down the rabbit hole " is very clever at times and is always there while telling a new story with very disturbing sometimes even funny (Like American psycho funny) moments. I Absolutely loved this film and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys an amazing independent movie that could easily beat out what is in theaters these days.

with all of the cr@p that is being made and recycled today this is a rare and precious gem. I had no idea what this was about and I thought it was just called Alyce! anyway, to give anything away would be a shame. enjoy. no disappointments. intelligent. witty. did not see that coming. almost has an evil dead or army of darkness tone but the films are strikingly different. very few things need changing and they are minor technical complaints- i.e. lighting could have been a tad lighter but I am sure the director had his reasons. it is so hard for original script writing and good dialogue and a unique story to come out of Hollywood nowadays. I would rather watch this than a multitude of predictable summer comic book hero fall asleep story lines, but that's just MHO.

What happens when an otherwise normal, possibly even boring and plain, girl lose her marbles and go crazy? Well, that is basically what "Alyce" is about. The movie starts out fairly slow, letting you get to know the two best friends Alyce (played by Jade Dornfeld) and Carroll (played by Tamara Feldman). When Carroll finds out that her boyfriend is cheating on her, she takes Alyce with her and goes drinking and take some drugs. Ending up on top of a building, tragedy strikes when Carroll is accidentally pushed over the ledge by Alyce, as a freak accident. From there on, Alyce goes into denial and starts to escape from reality by sorting to using drugs, ending up in a violent world of drug dealers and having to deal with a drug-induced reality. For a movie of this sort, then "Alyce" was a bit tame. Sure the movie had its moments, but personally I found the constant flood of flashed images of a dead Carroll was a bit too much, and it was starting to become irritating. What was working in the movie, though, was the way it was shot and put together, because following Alyce's delve down into madness, it was like being there with her. However, there are better movies out there in the same category, and such examples of that would be "May" or "She's Crushed". Don't get me wrong, "Alyce" is not a bad movie, but it was just lacking something extraordinary to make the movie memorable and stand out. It is great the first time around when you watch it, but I don't believe that this movie has enough contents to support being watched a second time. It was, however, an interesting approach to the movie that the director, Jay Lee, took, going from what seemed would be a movie about Alyce being haunted by her guilt (and seeing her dead friend constantly) to a movie about drug use and slipping into a broken down mental state. Thumbs up for that twist, though. The acting in the movie was actually quite good, and Jade Dornfeld (playing Alyce) was actually doing it really great in her lead role, and she was carrying the movie, definitely. Also quite noticeable was Eddie Rouse (playing Rex the drug dealer). The way that the movie ended was just priceless. I loved that ending, and it actually made it worth sitting through.

This is quite a strange film starts out a girls night out. All light hearted fun turning to drinking, drug taking and ending with one of the girls accidentally falling off the roof. After this the film gets weirder with the other girl (Alyce) taking stronger drugs which turn her into a murderous psychopath. I suppose this is a warning on the dangers of taking drugs. There is a strange moral speech by the drug dealer half way through the film where he tries to justify his lifestyle by telling us that the real bad guys are the money grabbers in wall street and war mongers in government. There are some nice comedy moments in the latter part of the film where she sweetly asks a handyman if she can borrow his saw, hammer and baseball bat to get rid of a dead body. The way she mashes the dead body with the baseball bat and with regular kitchen appliances and the waste disposal was a joy to watch. Her reaction to the police in her apartment at the end is classic comedy. I enjoyed this film and I don't even know why but I don't think it's for everyone.

This film started out promising... production values, acting, script were first-rate, and then it suddenly took a left turn a third of the way through and went in four different directions. Was this a film about a woman becoming psychotic from her solitary existence as well the guilt re: her friend's death (why didn't she just tell the police the truth? It was an accident, not a murder), a film about drug abuse, a slasher film, or - all of the above? And, if so, what was the point? For some reason, Alyce's personality completely changes after her friend's accident and she becomes aggressive, angry and sadistic... with no explanation of what happened to cause that. The film continued to disappointingly lose its focus the longer the running time increased and I was finally left during the end credits pondering just what it was all about or what it had possibly been trying to say. A character study, perhaps? It seemed like a half-developed script that had really no place to go. Addendum: Just did some quick research on the director, Jay Lee, and was surprised to learn he'd made "Zombie Strippers," which I thought was a camp masterpiece. What happened?

Every scene is almost pitch black or lit from overhead through a porthole. Either that or they live in a cave. Extreme closeups w super short focal length so everything except the face in extreme closeup is out of focus. It's just an annoying one trick. You could easily replace 90% of the movie by leaving the lens cap on. For the story? Alyce is a straight up whackjob. Whether it's the binge drinking or the drugs or she fell out her mama that way, who knows? Who cares? She's an annoying a-hole either. But the good thing is that there's not a single character who doesn't really need to have their head beat in with a hammer.

What is this movie about? It's about a chick who goes crazy. Or---who was not right in the head in the first place and circumstances pushed her over the edge. The first part of the movie has Alyce and her best friend Carroll out on the street late at night. They're both drunk having a public heart-to-heart. Why? After meeting up with her boyfriend earlier at a bar, Carroll found out her boyfriend Vince is cheating on her. Later, they arrive at Alyce's place and consider making out (sorry guys, that went nowhere). Then Carroll suggest that they go out and get drugs. This they do. Later Carroll winds up in a hospital. All of this eats up about 20 mins of the movie. The next part is about how Alyce copes with her sense of guilt. She's a nervous wreck and seeing things. The movie seemed like a ghost story at this point to me. To help her cope, Alyce goes back to the same drug dealer she and Carroll went to earlier to buy drugs. Her behavior gets even weirder. The movie is about a hour and a half. By the last half hour Alyce has totally flipped and the movie doesn't appear to be a ghost story anymore but about a psycho bitch. The ending is so over-the-top in terms of the story and violence, that it becomes a kind of "horror comedy" whereas earlier it seemed like a serious offbeat psychological thriller. Finally, all I can say about this movie is that it's a curious mix of style and content. Subject matter includes: drugs, drunkenness, *, necrophilia, rough sex, butchery (only the last item was explicit). As far as the style goes, it seemed light at first (where's this thing going?), then serious (Damn!), then both light and serious (Huh?) Love, Boloxxi.