Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972) User Reviews

a cleverly subverted fairytale

[ThrownMuse · 7/10 · 16 January 2005]

From the opening scene, it is obvious that Rosie Forrest (aka Auntie Roo) is completely insane. She lives alone in a magnificent mansion in 1920s England and will never get over the death of her young daughter. In an attempt to fill this void, Auntie Roo has an annual Christmas party for a few of the best behaved children from the local orphanage. This year, a misbehaving brother and sister stowaway in the trunk of the car and join the party. Auntie Roo starts to believe the girl is her daughter, while the boy is convinced Auntie Roo is a witch. Mayhem ensues.

This is a clever, creepy, and amusing subversion of the "Hansel and Gretel" fairytale that puts forth the notion that the wicked witch might not be inherently evil or even malintentioned--just severely insane! Some of the scares are cheesy, a few of the child actors are awful (the lead girl looks and acts like she was sniffing glue during the entire production!), and it is a bit disconcerting to sit through yet another movie where Shelley Winters sings and dances like a freak. But overall, this is an underrated sick little fairytale. My Rating: 7/10

A fun cult flick.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 22 October 2018]

Shelley Winters is given some rich opportunities here to emote and otherwise tear into the scenery. In the role of Mrs. Forrest, a.k.a. "Auntie Roo", she provides a nice place for orphaned children to spend their Christmas holidays. But incorrigible child Christopher Coombs (Mark Lester) is convinced that she's like the witch in the "Hansel and Gretel" story, and kidnaps kids in order to fatten them up and eat them.

While clearly Mrs. Forrest has gone off the deep end, you do feel sympathy for her. She certainly can't accept or deal with the death of her own child, and she's taken advantage of by a conniving butler (Michael Gothard) and medium (the great Ralph Richardson). Some viewers are sure to be suspicious of the bratty Christopher, and doubt the possibility of Mrs. Forrest being an actual "witch".

Overall, the movie is a fun, if not exemplary, effort for Curtis Harrington, who'd also collaborated with Winters on "What's the Matter with Helen?". They make a good team, in this tale (concocted by David D. Osborn, and scripted by Robert Blees and Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster) intended as a twisted modern version of "Hansel and Gretel". It establishes a tone right away with its pre-credits sequence, where Mrs. Forrest sings a lullaby to a corpse.

Lester and adorable Chloe Franks are good as the brother and sister targeted by our unbalanced protagonist, with Gothard, Richardson, lovely Judy Cornwell, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith, and Rosalie Crutchley providing excellent support.

The opening credits sequence comes complete with over the top music by Kenneth V. Jones, adding to the fairy tale feel of the material. And since it takes place during the Christmas holidays, some viewers may want to make it part of their Yuletide viewing tradition.

Seven out of 10.

Certainly Not the Gingerbread Man!

[BaronBl00d · 5/10 · 13 July 2005]

I had the fortunate circumstance to see this double-billed as a very young child with Bava'a Baron Blood. Some of the scenes remained in my mind - particularly the creepy figure of Shelley Winters. I recently set out to see the film again some 30 years later. I remembered more than I thought I had, and the film came back to me in large part. This is not a bad film nor a good film. As another reviewer noted, it is a pleasant, harmless time-waster - for those of us who enjoy "wasting" time on such things. Mark Lester and Chloe Franks play two orphans at an orphanage. Franks has an uncanny resemblance to the dead daughter of the orphanage's greatest patroness and benefactress, Shelley Winters. Winters is so good to the kiddies that every year she invites them to her sumptuous home at Christmas for yuletide fun. She has virtually no interest in Lester but soon has the keenest of hearts for the young Franks as her dead daughter's look-a-like. Well, Lester is a growing teen rebelling, Winters decays into some form of madness, a cast of stalwart British character actors such as Sir Ralph Richardson, Hugh Griffith, and Lionel Jeffries ably aid the story, and that story degenerates/diffuses into some sinister tale not unlike Hansel and Gretel. Well, the movie has a poor story overall - but Winter's fine performance albeit over-the-top to be sure does add emotional depth to it. Director Curtis Harrington is very able behind the camera if not dazzling.

A Refreshing Take On The Hansel & Gretel Story

[mozmike · 29 December 2002]

Who Slew Auntie Roo is still one of the most cleverly constructed films of the 70s.

An interesting and fascinating take on the Hansel and Gretel story.

Mrs. Forrest (Shelley Winters) is a rich widow who had been married to a successful British Magician. He died leaving her his fortune and creepy mansion called "Forrest Grange" Their little 7 year old daughter Katherine died after falling off a banister that she was sliding down.

The film opens with Auntie Roo as she is called by the orphans singing a lullabye to what appears to be a child in a cradle. Auntie Roo quietly steals out after we think the child is asleep. The camera slowly pans to the cradle only to reveal a rotted corpse of a child in a nightgown. This sets the scenario for the film.

Auntie Roo is obviously an eccentric. She has constant seances in an attempt to communicate with her dead daughter. Of course her psychic is in cahoots with the servants who stage the seances.

It is now time for Aunt Roo's annual Christmas Party where 10 lucky children from the local orphanage are selected to attend an overnight holiday party at Forrest Grange. Christopher and Katy Coombs, a brother and sister are not selected, but stow away in the back of the car. Auntie Roo sees a resemblance in Katy to her dead daughter Katherine...and of course the movie takes off from here. The children see Auntie Roo as the witch in Hansel and Gretel...and Forrest Grange is the Gingerbread House. I won't give away any more of the plot, but the psychological games between the children and Auntie Roo as their terror mounts makes for an extremely entertaining film.

Aside from Shelley Winter's bravura performance, there are also strong contributions from Sir Ralph Richardson as her psychic; Rosemary Crutchley as the director of the orphanage, Mark Lester (of Oliver fame) as Christopher. The art and set direction are marvelous along with excellent camera work and lighting.

This film makes for a different and offbeat Christmas movie or just a plain "fun" movie to watch anytime!

One Resourceful Kid

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 15 February 2013]

No doubt that Shelley Winters assumed the title role in Whoever Slew Auntie Roo for a chance to really chew the scenery. That's what's great about films like Whoever Slew Auntie Roo, you can overact to the max and no one will criticize you.

By all appearances Shelley is a kindly old widow, an American transplanted to the United Kingdom of the Roaring Twenties and she opens her house once a year to a select group of children from a nearby school. In reality all I can say is she's a woman with issues. She lost her own daughter in a tragic accident and tries to communicate with her through a medium played deliciously by Ralph Richardson.

Mark Lester and Chloe Franks are a pair of misbehaving kids from the school who are brother and sister. They don't get invited to Shelley's place but stowaway in the trunk of the car that brings the others. That's when Shelley fixates on young Chloe who reminds her of her daughter. She kidnaps Chloe and Lester takes it upon himself to rescue her.

The story is a loosely told tongue and cheek version of the Grimm brothers Hansel And Gretel so if you remember the tale from your childhood, you've got some approximate idea of what happens to Winters. Lester turns out to be quite the resourceful kid.

Also take note of Lionel Jeffries as the local police inspector and Hugh Griffith as the local butcher who wants payment for services owed and won't take no for an answer from Winters.

There's also a bit of similarity with American Gothic classic Night Of The Hunter in how the kids outwit Winters the way they outwitted Robert Mitchum in that film.

Fans of Shelley Winters should enjoy this.

Hansel And Gretel, Updated

[boblipton · 6/10 · 8 June 2019]

Shelley Winters is the rich, fat widow of a stage magician. Her daughter died when a child, sliding down the banister. Nowadays, she has children from a local orphanage in for Christmas eve, where she treats them to a dinner, a reading of "A Visit From St. Nicholas" and gifts. When Chloe Franks sees her looking at the mummified corpse of her daughter, Miss Winters keeps her and her brother, Mark Lester, prisoner in an eccentric modern-dress version of "Hansel and Gretel."

Director Curtis Harrington has assembled an interesting cast, including Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries and Hugh Griffith in this Hammer-Films-style horror story; Jimmy Sangster is one of the writers. It all hangs together well enough even though this is not the sort of movie I typically enjoy. Miss Winters was still near the beginning of herthe final phase phase of her career, when she played a lot of eccentrics, and pretty restrained for the role. It's Mark Lester who is the real monster of the show.

Ghoulish terror film with an updated twist on the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 5 February 2022]

A thrilling and suspenseful flick with great performance from veteran actress Shelley Winters playing a madwoman who lures two children into her evil clutches . A demented and disturbing widow who hides a deadly secret which she will do anything to keep buried and along the way she lures unsuspecting children into her mansion resulting in bizarre consequences . As Auntie Roo : Shelley Winters is a kindly American widow who gives them a lavish Christmas party each year in her mansion, as there appears Christopher : Mark Lester and Katy : Chloe Franks , then things go awry .. She's Taking a stab at Motherhood!.Have You Ever Held a Skeleton in Your Arms?.Say goodnight to Auntie Roo, kiddies. It's dead time!.Nightmares come true in the house of Auntie Roo. The hand that rocks the cradle has no flesh on it!

This is a horrific tale with thrills , chills , plot twists and portentous interpretations . Features Shelley Winters as reclusive , odd widow mistaken for the fairy tale's children eating by one of the orphans at he annual Christmas party with dire consequences. Main and support cast are frankly top-notch . As Shelley Winters is terrific as the suspect widow , she is excellently accompanied by an awesome cast such as : Ralph Richardson , Lionel Jeffries , Hugh Griffith, Rosalie Crutchley , Pat Heywood , Judy Cornwell , Michael Gothard , and two kiddies , Mark Lester and Chloe Franks are very good , as well . Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972) belongs to a sub-genre developed in the Sixties and Seventies , dealing with deranged widows or unsettling spinsters , middle-age or elderly women who often commit grisly killings , whose main representatives were Robert Aldrich with his big hit "What ever happened to Baby Jane ?" Stars Bette Davis , Joan Crawford, "Hush ...Hush Sweet Charlotte" stars Olivia De Havilland , Bette Davis and Curtis Harrington with "Whoever slew Auntiee Roo ?" Stars Shelley Winters , "What's the matter with Helen ?" Stars Debbie Reynolds , Shelley Winters , "The Killing Kind" with Ann Sothern . ¨What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?¨ with Geraldine Page , Ruth Gordon, Rosemary Forsyth , ¨Ruby¨by Curtsi harrington with Piper Laurie , Stuart Whitman and "Games" with Simone Signoret.

It packs an adequate cinematography by Desmond Dickinson , as well as moving and intriguing musical score by Kenneth V. Jones .Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972) well produced by James H. Nicholson , Samuel Z. Arkoff was competently directed by Curtis Harrington providing tension and suspense enough . Curtis Harrington was a good craftsman in B-territory . In 1961 he made a strong and impressive feature-film debut with the nicely moody and quirky Night tide (1961) with Dennis Hooper. His follow-up features were a pleasingly diverse , idiosyncratic and often entertaining bunch , and included the delightfully campy Shelley Winters vehicles as Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972) , What's the Matter with Helen? (1971) ,the perverse The Killing Kind (1973) and the immensely fun Ruby (1977). Moreover , Harrington directed a handful of solid and satisfying made-for-TV offerings: The cat (1973), Killer bees (1974), The Dead Don't Die (1975) and the terror animal Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) , as well as TV episodes from The Twilight Zone, The Colby , Dynasty , Wonder woman , Hotel , among others . Rating : 6.5/10. Decent and notable horror picture .

Hansel and Gretel

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 2 January 2021]

In England, in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the American millionaire Mrs. Forrest (Shelley Winters) welcomes ten orphans from the local orphanage to spend the Christmas night with her. Mrs. Forrest misses her daughter Katherine, who died in a silly accident, and is exploited by the charlatan Mr. Benton (Ralph Richardson), her butler and her housekeeper in fake séances. When the sibling orphans Christopher Coombs (Mark Lester) and Katy Coombs (Chloe Franks) are not selected to go to the party, they sneak out to Mrs. Forrest's home and she welcomes them. She feels a great attraction for Katy, who resembles Katherine, but Christopher suspects that the widow is a witch.

"Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" is a great horror movie, with the fable of "Hansel and Gretel" in the mind of an innocent orphan. The plot and characters are well-developed and with excellent cast. The dark conclusion is excellent. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Fábula Macabra" ("Macabre Fable")

Note: On 24 March 2023, I saw this film again.

Strange, slow thriller.

[gridoon · 5/10 · 29 August 2002]

Well, the title sounds intriguing, and "Hansel and Gretel" has always been one of my very favorite fairy tales, but this is a slow-moving, lackluster thriller, with only a few suspenseful scenes (one of those, however, with a kid trying to reach a key before Shelley Winters returns to the room, is perfectly executed). Aside from Winters' over-the-top acting, all the other performances - including the kids - are very good. (**)

Shelley Winters is fantastic in this Great British Classic!

[arrival · 10/10 · 10 May 2005]

Probably Shelley Winters' greatest Movie - though I suspect many would disagree.

Many viewers delight in name-calling 'Aunt Roo' as 'nuts' 'crazy' 'evil' etc., but many fail to see the sad and pathetic side to this unfortunate character.

Aunt Roo (played marvellously by the wonderful Shelley Winters) is clearly traumatised by the tragic death of her only child. Left widowed in an isolated mansion to live all by herself, she is taken advantage of, and her 'damaged' mind from the trauma of her loss is cruelly and sadistically abused by her staff who pretend to be her dead daughter come back during false seances.

Many viewers ignore her staff who bleed her white. Despite showing loads of kindnesses to orphaned children, she is further still abused by two of the most ungrateful among them. Consequently, 'Aunt Roo' transforms from just being traumatised to mentally disturbed, and the tragic end to the movie ensues.

I guess this story just goes to prove how cruel society and people can be to traumatised people without trying to understand them, just because they are adults. If the roles of this film were reversed, everyone's sympathy would still lie with the children...

Shelley Winters' performance still brings tears to my eyes when she cries and yearns for her dead child, only to find out she's been made a fool of - enough to drive anyone insane!

A fabulous Movie, and a fabulous story. It's often likened to Hansel And Gretel, but I think it's far more complicated than that - poor 'Aunt Roo'!

A DEAD time story to keep you awake!

[Stevieboy666 · 6/10 · 12 March 2022]

Every Christmas Eve eccentric American Auntie Roo invites some children from the local orphanage to stay at her large English country mansion. She's a real oddball, she keeps the decomposed corpse of her dead daughter in the child's bedroom and hosts (fake) seances to contact her. She also kidnaps one young orphan girl because of the similarity to her daughter. The girl's brother comes to the rescue. The movie is a good example of horror meets fairy tale, in this instance it is "Hansel and Gretel" The cast is very good, Hollywood starlet Shelley Winters gives a fine performance as Roo but all of the parts are played well. I have this on an old British VHS tape and it has a rated 18 sticker on it, seems a bit harsh. Apart from two scenes, the first with the aforementioned corpse plus a creepy segment involving some stage magician's props, the movie is not scary. It is a good looking film, ideal for Festive Season late night viewing, but it shouldn't keep you awake, despite what the video tagline says! AKA Who Slew Auntie Roo?

Good, old-fashioned horror movie

[Little_Loie · 19 August 1999]

Shelley Winters' character is sad, pathetic, scary, and warped in this movie...and she plays it to the hilt. A broad take-off on the old "Hansel and Gretel" fairytale, this movie is pure 70's.

If you like your horror films without a lot of gore and with a lot of suspense, see "Who Slew Auntie Roo?" It's worth your time.

Guilt on the Gingerbread

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 30 August 2022]

The title suggests Robert Aldrich but it's actually a fairy tale set at Christmas in the 1920s resembling Hansel & Gretel crossed with 'Psycho' and 'The Amazing Mr Blunden' (whose director is actually in the cast), with Shelly Winters as as crazy old woman keeping a mummified corpse in her bedroom and preying on a pair of orphans one of whom is Oliver Twist himself.

American-International imported an American director and star to blighty, but while it includes a few of the fanciful touches one expects from Curtis Harrington - like a teddy bear being guillotined - his direction is overall rather perfunctory.

The cast includes Michael Gothard resembling Klaus Kinski as a very saturnine butler, and also boasts a most unlikely additional dialogue credit for Gavin Lambert.

Overall enjoyable

[zhivago97 · 6/10 · 20 June 2021]

Overall enjoyable, great cast and yes Mark Lester is once again an orphan looking for a forever home. I think some things are lost in translation (I.e., British vs American English), including, unfortunately one of the final and pivotal scenes. But it's still an enjoyable movie that made me laugh.

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 28 May 2023]

Shelley Winters is super in this oddball horror. She ("Mrs. Forrest") invites ten young children into her mansion-cum-orphanage one Christmas - desperate to fill the void left by the death of her young daughter Katherine. Two children who did not get invited - "Katy" (Chloe Franks) and her brother "Christopher" (Mark Lester) decide that they are not going to be left out - but when the girl ends up locked in the attic, it falls to her brother to manage to convince everyone that his sister has been kidnapped, and that the old lady is not of particularly sound mind! A solid cast support the star here - Sir Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries - in a straight (ash) role for a change, and the always engaging Hugh Griffith, but somehow once the film gets going I expected it to turn comedic. There just isn't any menace. Winters' performance is just scatty, never scary. Still, the ensemble delivers a reasonable script well enough and there are just about enough creepy goings on in the house to sustain it before an ending that i found rather sad.

Shelley Winters hams it up to good effect in this psychological horror

[Colbridge · 6/10 · 6 December 2021]

This is a little gem of a horror film that I only recently discovered almost 50 years after it's initial release. Shelley Winters plays a deranged widow who hosts Christmas parties for orphaned children in her countryside mansion in England, however she keeps the mummified remains of her dead daughter locked up in the attic after a traumatic accident that occurred years earlier.

When one particular girl turns up at a party and reminds her of her daughter she becomes obsessed and decides to lock her up in the attic as well, so it's left to her brother played by Mark Lester in a similar role he played in Oliver! (1968), to rescue her after the authorities refuse to believe him.

With a good supporting cast of Ralph Richardson, Judy Cornwall, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith and Michael Gothard under the assured direction of American director Curtis Harrington this is a neat psychological thriller with moments of horror in a loose adaptation of Hansel and Gretel that is both fun and unsettling. Winters hams it up to good effect when she needs to, going from jovial to psychotic at a moments notice, but also chooses to play her character as a lonely and pathetic figure.

Penned by Hammer Films regular Jimmy Sangster this AIP US co-production with British company Hemdale is another entry in the so-called psycho-biddy sub-genre that began with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). I detected moments in this film that could have inspired Spielberg to make Poltergiest (1982) and did the moment when Shelley Winters pokes her head through the broken door panel near the end give Stanley Kubrick his 'Here's Johnny' moment?

There's such a thing as too much Shelley Winters

[bregund · 3/10 · 4 June 2021]

I guess someone should have told this film's editor. I guess people in 1972 might have lined up to watch a Shelley Winters film billed as a horror, but by the time she performs a Christmastime burlesque show for a roomful of bored orphans, you'll be yawning as well. You have to see it to believe it, she looks like an overstuffed sausage. The skillful, edgy restraint she showed in Night of the Hunter, promising a career delivering top-notch performances, is long gone, replaced by a persistent and troublesome nagging undertone, as though the actress is the one directing the film...another actress who was probably told one too many times how good she was in NOTH and Lolita. This b-movie landed with a thud on my television last night, without having presented a single compelling or memorable scene, concept, performance, or story arc.

A Cult Classic

[Carrigon · 10/10 · 22 August 1999]

A great horror movie to watch at Christmas time. It has a creepy old mansion, great child actors. The plot centers around the disappearance of a child years before and some orphans who just happen to end up at the same mansion years later. Shelley Winters is great in this movie. It's really got a classic old british feel to this movie. Definitely a horror holiday classic, creepy, scary and fun to watch.

Shelley Winters's campy world

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 17 April 2013]

Curtis Harrington had just directed Shelley Winters in the sinister "What's the Matter with Helen?", and so he brought her back for the equally sinister "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?". Unlike the first movie, this one doesn't look at moral gray areas. Instead it goes straight for the jugular, riffing on Hansel and Gretel with Winters in the role of the witch (who in this case is simply a disturbed woman keeping her late daughter's skeleton preserved). It's a pretty fun movie, corny though it is. Easily better than the other movie in which Winters starred that year (the obnoxious "Poseidon Adventure").

So yes, can you hear your daughter's voice?

Your finger's too thin!

[dbdumonteil · 28 October 2007]

The first part is as delightful as the cakes,the sweets ,the lollipops and the gingerbread men which the good lady serves to the orphans she welcomes for her Christmas party in her Gothic desirable mansion.This mysterious woman,with a racy past ,was married to a magician (remarkable scene when the two children venture into the old house full of magic props where once more,we are told that children are not necessarily devoid of cruelty.

After a seance in the dark with a charlatan medium,Roo (Winters)is quite sure that one of the orphans is her late daughter ,who rose from the dead. She wants to keep her in her house but her brother (Mark "Oliver" Lester ) is not prepared to accept it.He tells his sister about Grimm's sinister fairytale "Hansel und Gretel" in the gingerbread house.

The first hour is brilliant:the Christmas atmosphere is perfectly captured.The crepuscular quality of the film is tangible .Few other films of the seventies offer so many associations of guarded privacy and locked rooms,in such dreamlike darkness.Shelley Winters is outstanding particularly in that short scene when she goes from tears to a good laugh.

The film obviously loses steam in the last thirty minutes.Winters begins to overact to make up for the poor third of the script which is at once repetitive ,dull and predictable.We do not need Lester's voice over to understand that the children are Hansel and Gretel in the witch's den..As Freud and Bruno Bettelheim showed,fairy tales have an hidden meaning which the children unconsciously comprehend but the demonstration is pretty low brow.

Watch it anyway:its incredible several moments make it all worthwhile.

Like this?Try these....

"Les amants criminels" François Ozon 1996

"The night of the hunter" Charles Laughton 1955

"The nanny" Holt 1965

"Bunny Lake is missing" Otto Preminger 1965

A Nice Twisted Take On A Fairy Tale... Well Worth A Watch...

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 7/10 · 17 September 2020]

My Ratings: Story 1.50 : Direction 1.50 : Pace 1.25 : Acting 1.25 : Entertaining 1.50 Total 7.00 out of 10.00.

This twisted take on the Hansel & Gretel fairytale has now become my favourite Christmas Horror, though it's not a horror film it's a chiller - but, nowadays there appears to be no distinction. Amazingly, this film never gets a mention in any of the genre's festive lists. People, you don't know what your missing.

Firstly: David Osborn, along with Robert Blees and Jimmy Sangster came up with the wonderfully twisted take. Mrs Forrest is a retired vaudeville star. Who, with the help of her magician husband, made enough money to live in a country estate and to hold a Christmas Party for the orphans every year. Mrs Forest insists the children call her Auntie Roo while they're under her roof. However, Auntie Roo has an ulterior motive for their invites. She loves children... and she's never gotten over the disappearance of her own daughter. That's what the locals believe, but they are only half right. This Christmas time two of the orphans will discover the dark truth to Auntie Roo. Unfortunately, Christopher Coombs has just read his sister, Katy, a bedtime story. One, where the witch takes two lost children captive. One, where she feeds them up. One, where she eats them all up... In Christopher's mind, Auntie Roo is that big bad and hungry witch.

What the writers then do is add empathy to Auntie Roo. You felt sorry for her, while willing the kids to escape. Because, even though you relate to Auntie Roo, you know she's broken, and nothing good will come of this situation.

Secondly: Curtis Harrington, the director, keeps the pace of this chiller, fairly tripping along lightly. Though there are some very dark elements to the story the film never plunges into too dark a depth. This works superbly with the script and the cast alike. He handles the few flashbacks well and doesn't confuse the viewer, which some films have been apt to do. What a lot of directors like to do nowadays is to get down to the grit. They use grey filters to give a bleak and depressing feel. They exploit the darkness by making the viewer strain to see what's going on. Hoping their imagination will fill in the blanks (most of the time this doesn't work as they don't entirely prep the audience beforehand). They rely on shaky camera work to give the illusion of reality, especially in point of view flicks. Harrington does none of this. Everything is in vivid colour. The night sequences are well lit so you can see everything. And the cameras glide and pan smoothly. And yet, thanks to the story and the actors, he crafts a film full of different atmospheres; joy, sadness, loss, tension, and hope to name a few.

Thirdly: The actors, some of whom are in personas you wouldn't expect, are excellent... except for Shelley Winters. Let me state I adored her strong portrayal in The Night Of The Hunter. This was the first movie of hers where I thought, Wow, this lady can act! However, it seems to be hit or miss with Winters and this portrayal as Auntie Roo just misses. It comes close... but sometimes she goes too far and enters the overacting arena. The film belongs to the strong British cast who more than make up for her handful of glitches. I thought using Lionel Jeffries as Inspector Willoughby was a strange choice. However, he brings an air of class to the role which he doesn't play for comedy. Though he adds a nice joviality when he's around the orphans. The orphans, themselves, are great. Each does a brilliant job and adds to the reality of the film.

All in all, this is a wonderfully dark, twisted, and excellently written, filmed, and acted slice of entertainment. I would recommend this to everybody who likes or loves Chillers... and horror films. I'd even recommend it to new audiences of the genres. I wish they produced more of today's horror and chiller films with this eye and attention to detail... and not reliant on gimmicks to keep their audience's attention.

Skip on over to my Killer Thriller Chillers to see where I've ranked this forgotten jewel.

Take Care and Stay Well.

WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? (Curtis Harrington, 1971) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 19 May 2007]

I watched this one - and the film on the flip side of the MGM DVD, WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN (1971) - in tribute to the recent passing of Curtis Harrington; I also just ordered his NIGHT TIDE (1961) and RUBY (1977), both of which contain Audio Commentaries featuring the director. Personally I'm most grateful to the man because, thanks to his efforts, James Whale's long-lost horror classic THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) was rediscovered - a film which, when I finally caught up with it, jumped straight to my all-time favorite slot!

Anyway, AUNTIE ROO is an AIP horror piece which came at the tail-end of the so-called "Whatever" cycle - which began with WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962) and was noted for giving larger-than-life macabre roles to ageing female Hollywood stars. This one featured Shelley Winters (who also co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in HELEN), who certainly gave the part her all. She was surrounded by accomplished cast members (Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith, Rosalie Crutchley, Michael Gothard and child actors Mark Lester and Chloe Franks) and the behind-the-camera crew was equally imposing (Jimmy Sangster and Gavin Lambert among the screenwriters and cinematographer Desmond Dickinson).

Incidentally, just as Hammer's STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING (1972) took its inspiration from "Peter Pan", this was based on the popular fairy-tale by the Brothers Grimm "Hansel & Gretel" - with Lester and Franks as the siblings at the mercy of 'witch' Winters! Ironically, however, the first half of the film works rather better than the heavy-handed fairy-tale scenario: the story has been updated and reset to pre-WWI England (where it was also shot) and necessitates quite a bit of exposition (including a subplot involving Richardson and Gothard fleecing the rich widow by holding fake séances, in which she tries to contact her own daughter about whose death she is guilt-ridden and whose decaying corpse she still conserves!). It may be that, not having another actress of her own caliber to play against, Winters too often resorts to hamminess and gradually unbalances the film...though it must be said that Lester is supposed to have a demonic side to him, given his callous disposal of Winters, but which he's largely unable to convey (for this reason, it'll be interesting to check out his NIGHT HAIR CHILD [1972] where he plays a disturbed boy menacing stepmom Britt Ekland and which I've had on DivX for quite some time)! This, then, would seem to suggest that the supporting cast is wasted; with respect to Jeffries and Griffith, that may perhaps be true, but Richardsoin does get to demonstrate his incomparable thespian skills in a couple of extended scenes (still, his role isn't quite as large or central to the plot as one would expect from his above-the-title billing!).

Harrington's wonderful period atmosphere is admirably sustained, however, and the scenes in which Winters lullabies her long-dead daughter have a definite creepiness to them (ditto the sequence in which the children insinuate themselves into the room belonging to Winters' late conjurer husband, play around with a still-active guillotine and are scared by a costumed Gothard).

Shelley Winters is at it again!

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 30 July 2002]

Despite the hair-raising ads ("It's DEAD time!"), a mild British thriller from American-International Pictures with Shelley Winters camping it up as loony woman mourning her dead daughter, convinced a little orphan girl is her deceased child come back to life. Allegedly conceived as a "Hansel and Gretel" revision, the film has some suspense and sharp editing, also a satisfying wrap-up. Say what you will about Shelley's style of acting, she makes a dandy villainess; going from sugary sweetness to angry paranoia in record time, one begins to fear these kids don't stand a chance. Following on the tail-end of the "Baby Jane" cycle, "Auntie Roo" isn't "respectable" work... however, on the bottom-half of a drive-in double feature, it's enjoyable enough. Curtis Harrington directs in workman-like fashion, and probably deserved a medal after having helmed "What's the Matter With Helen?" with Winters the previous year. ** from ****

Interesting take on Hansel and Gretel

[gorytus-20672 · 7/10 · 25 August 2021]

Aug 21

Just finally got to see this for a 2nd time, i had originally seen it many many years ago as a kid, but i always remembered it.

It is basically a version of hansel and gretel with Mark Lester as the little boy.

I was pleasantly surprised how enjoyable i found this, it really holds up very well, i would recommend this.

7.5 out of 10.

A Hansel and Gretel inspired horror oddity.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 24 July 2017]

Shelley Winters stars as widower Mrs. Forrest, who, having lost her daughter Katherine in an accident, now enjoys the company of children from the local orphanage, throwing a party for the best behaved kids at her house each Christmas. When Christopher Coombs (Mark Lester) and his younger sister Katy (Chloe Franks) crash the party, Mrs. Forrest takes a particular liking to the little girl, who reminds her of her own dear departed daughter. Her feelings towards Katy quickly become an obsession and she schemes to keep the girl as her own, although Christopher, convinced that the woman is a witch, is determined to rescue his sibling no matter what.

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? is quite the oddity, drawing inspiration from the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, with Mrs. Forrest tempting the kids with sugary treats to fatten them up, and preparing a roaring oven in the kitchen, which Christopher believes is intended for both he and his sister. Adding to the twisted atmosphere is the dessicated corpse of little Katherine that her progressively loopy mother keeps hidden in a secret room. All of this had bags of potential to be a thoroughly demented classic of macabre cinema, but the rather restrained execution prevents it from being so. Winters tries her best, hamming it up as much as possible in every scene, but even her best efforts fail to make this the ghoulish treat it could so easily have been.

For a far more effective off-beat approach to the Hansel and Gretel story, watch Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby. Now that is seriously messed up!