Anyone else think the cops were in"cop"itent?

After watching the film again on TCM a few nights ago, I had mixed feelings. The cinematography was rather nice, as well as the scenery. The acting was alright, though I will say there was far too much screaming from the mother and her sister.

I'm also not sure if I buy the SCOOBY DOOish "twist" regarding the killer. There are times where it definitely looks like a kid (albeit a large or fat child), so when the reveal happens I was a bit "taken back", as Ms Tredoni was a bit too skinny and tall to play the previously masked raincoat killer scenes. In fact, her having the EXACT mask as Alice was a bit preposterously convenient. Same with her motive for suddenly wanting to kill these particular characters (and never having the urge to murder anyone else prior).

Even so, what about those wonderful cops and their investigative abilities? No fingerprinting, no securing crime scenes for forensics (though maybe that was the point of having it take place in 1961, when that kind of thing was relatively new). Hell, even the end in the Church.. you would have thought they would just have some cops go in with regular clothes, sit on either side of the killer and then grab her and escort her out the church. You know.. instead of letting her kill the... well, you know who.

I dunno... there were good things about the movie (and it had it's fair share of creepy moments), but between the cops incompetency and the fate of the dad (dude, she just stabbed you in the shoulder and you're going to give her another try by walking right up on her? Really?!), I felt as if the script needed a bit more work.