Alice's confrontation with the villain Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) and her nightmare sequence of Jason (Ari Lehman) acts as the catalyst for the rest of the events of the series.

Film scholar Carol J. Clover cited Alice among the original examples of the "final girl" theory developed in her non-fiction book Men, Women, and Chainsaws (1992).

[1] Alice ultimately decapitates the villain, revealed to be Mrs. Voorhees, driven to kill by the death by drowning of her young son, Jason, which she blamed on negligent camp counselors.

[2] Although Adrienne King received top billing for the film, suggesting Alice would be prominently featured throughout, the character is suddenly killed in the prologue by Jason, who is revealed to be alive, fully grown, and seeking vengeance for the death of his mother.

[5] The unnamed camp counselor character beheads the crazed Pamela Voorhees (Nana Visitor), an event witnessed by the young Jason.

[6] Alice's story arc and backstory depict her in a love affair with two men (John in California and Steve Christy at Crystal Lake).

[8] Alice is troubled by recurring nightmares of her encounter with serial killer Mrs. Voorhees and the recollection of being pulled into the depths of the lake by her supposed drowned son Jason.

[10] Unlike the film, the novel details how Jason manages to locate Alice's whereabouts, with the revelations that he recognizes her during one of her visits to the lake and memorizes her car.

[18] Miller was supposed to build Alice upon the characteristics set forth by virginal heroine Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in Carpenter's film, particularly a sense of "resourcefulness and intelligence.

[19] Miller's early drafts provide Alice with a backstory, with her having an affair with a married man on the West Coast, which is why her relationship with Steve Christy is deteriorating, and she wants to leave the camp.

[19] Once filming began, however, director Sean S. Cunningham did not explore Alice's story arc in-depth due to budget and time constraints.

[23] Conversely, King described returning as Alice for this film to be unenjoyable due to a mundane set, "It was just me, a head in the refrigerator and someone outside, ready to throw a black cat at me through the window.

[34] Both Hughes and Ron Cowan (Statesman Journal) criticize the character's trait of knocking the villain unconscious and running away without killing her, the latter describing Alice as "a rather panicky young woman.

"[34][35] Alice's creator, writer Victor Miller, acknowledges this characteristic of the character in an op-ed, writing, "Without spoiling the ending for you, I'll say that our heroine becomes locked in a terminal struggle with the villain.

"[36] King states that she based her portrayal on traditional horror movie characters and described Alice as a "great scream queen heroine.

"[20] She also expresses regret that, due to the nature of horror movies, audiences never got to see Alice's relationship with Steve fleshed out, or what could have happened between her and fellow counselor, Bill.

[40] Bruce F. Kawin writes that, unlike other heroines of the time, Alice isn't saved by a man in the ending, thus having a more profound impact on future slasher films.

[45] Artist Matthew Therrien released a digital piece of Alice alongside Pamela Voorhees for his "Final Girls & Cinema Survivors" series.

[46] The character served as inspiration for writer Grady Hendrix's idea for his novel The Final Girl Support Group (2021) as her death in Part 2 bothered him since he was a child, and he wanted to give her a happy ending.

While non-canonical, Alice is a supporting character in James Sweet's fan film Jason Rising (2021) as an artist suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and wanting vengeance against the Voorhees family.