BA_Harrison 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!

udar55 Former stage star Auntie Roo (Shelley Winters) is the love of orphans in town come Christmas time as she invites ten lucky kids to come spend the night at her countryside estate on Christmas Eve. Two kids, Chris (Mark Lester) and Katy (Chloe Franks) Combs, who didn't make the cut sneak along to the mansion and soon their host is infatuated with Katy because she reminds her of her own missing daughter, who she has been trying to contact through séances. I'm still getting my Curtis Harrington freak on apparently as I watched this horror-thriller for the first time last night and found it to be fantastic. Reuniting after the equally great WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN (1971), director Harrington and lead Winters sure have the hysterics down in the story that draws its inspiration from Hanzel & Gretel. One of the more surprising things is both of the kid leads are also really good as well and you'll thank yourself for watching OLIVER himself get into a brawl with Winters. The rest of the cast - Ralph Richardson as a psychic, Lionel Jeffries as a policeman, Michael Gothard as the creepy butler - are fantastic too. The film has tons of Xmas spirit and, best of all, Harrington knows how to properly convey that old dark house feel perfectly. Definitely recommended if you haven't seen it.

MartinHafer Apparently 1971 was a heck of a year for Shelley Winters. She made "What's The Matter With Helen?" and "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?"--two movies where she played characters that were a crayons short of a full box (in other words, she was bonkers). Both are on a single DVD and are a lot of kitschy fun.The film starts with Winters telling her daughter a bedtime story and the scene is quite charming...until the camera pulls back and you see that the child is dead and has been there for a very, very long time! Creepy. You soon see that Winters is indeed daffy and a psychic (Ralph Richardson) comes to the house and they have a séance--Winters is desperately trying to dead daughter.A bit later, a group of orphans are invited to this weird lady's home. Apparently, each Christmas she invites a group of lucky kids to her mansion and showers them with love and presents and food. It looks wonderful. However, you know that Winters is imbalanced--though she acts more like some sort of angel. Two orphans sneak into the carriage with the rest and want to be part of the fun. The nasty lady from the orphanage is appalled (these kids are "bad" in her nasty mind) but Winters insists that they, too, should stay.These two particular kids just happen to be in the wrong place at the right time. The oldest (Mark Lester--who STILL looks like he needs a haircut following his role in "Oliver!") is quite inquisitive and searches throughout the house finding all kinds of creepy props from Winters' deceased husband (a magician) as well as a secret room--Winters' dead daughter's room (though fortunately the corpse is now hidden). As for the little girl, she has the same name as the dead daughter and reminds Winters of her lost child. So, in a move that Lester thinks is akin to the witch in "Hansel & Gretel", Winters steals the little girl and hides her in the hidden room. Why she didn't just adopt the kid, I have no idea. Regardless, Lester returns to the home to find his sister. What's in store for the kids? Is this crazy old lady going to eat them or do them other bodily harm? Or is she just a crazy but harmless lady who is trying to replace her lost child? Will she love them or eat them? Tune in a find out where all this goes in this creepy and atmospheric tale. There is a lot to like in this film. First, the atmosphere is super-creepy. Second, and this is my favorite part, you never are really sure about Winters--is she crazy but harmless and a bit sad or is she a dangerous psycho? This isn't real clear--and makes for a really, really unique viewing experience. Third, the ending is mega-creepy and will make your skin crawl a bit! Overall, an exciting low-brow bit of entertainment that horror fans should adore.

Coventry I honestly wonder why the entire production crew of "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" opted to use such an unusual and revealing narrative structure? Before the opening credits even, it's made distinctively clear that Rosie Forrest (a.k.a Auntie Roo") is mentally disturbed and dangerous, as she sings lullabies to a cradle that holds the mummified leftovers of a young girl's body. Yet, after this bizarre introduction, the film nevertheless attempts to convince us that she's an endearing old lady who throws Christmas parties for poor orphans and even tries to get into contact with the spirit of her deceased daughter through séances. I'm no horror script-writer, unfortunately, but wouldn't it have been much more effective if the macabre secret in Rosie's attic only got mentioned near the end of the movie? Anyway, despite some severely incomprehensible continuity-errors and other flaws, "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo" is an entertaining piece of American 70's horror that features surprisingly great acting performances and some memorable moments of ingeniousness. The story is presented as an adult variation to "Hansel & Gretel", which is definitely one of the eeriest and most gruesome fairy-tales ever told. When a dozen of orphans arrive at Auntie Roo's mansion to celebrate Christmas, she sees in beautiful Katy the reincarnation of her own deceased daughter. She seduces the young girl with toys and privileges, and when the rest of the children returns to the orphanage, Katy stays in the mansion, locked up in a room. Her courageous older brother escapes from the orphanage to search for Katy and discovers Auntie Roo's demented secrets. All the supposedly horrific plot-twists entirely miss their effect, for obvious reasons, and the playful character (as implied already by the silly title) prevents the film from ever getting disturbing. Director Curtis Harrington occasionally succeeds in capturing a tense moment, most notably when Christopher tricks the loony old lady and seizes her keys, and he also sustains a competent pacing. The film definitely also features a lot of atmospheric scenery, such as uncanny rooms full of old dolls and a garden shed filled with a magician's attributes. Shelley Winters is sublime as the crazy old woman and especially the talented child actors are a delight, for a change. The script also should have given some more attention to the interesting supportive characters, like the odd butler Albie and the joyful meat-deliverer Mr. Harrison. "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" is by no means a great horror film, but it's fun enough to watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon or during a theme-night with friends.