Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?


Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? is a 1971 horror-thriller film directed by Curtis Harrington and starring Shelley Winters, Mark Lester, and Sir Ralph Richardson. Based partly on the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel", the film focuses on a demented American widow living in her husband's English manor, who becomes obsessed with a young orphan girl who resembles that of her dead daughter.
A co-production between the United States and the United Kingdom, the film was shot at Shepperton Studios in London. Like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, and What's the Matter with Helen?, it is one of the many films in the Grande Dame Guignol genre. Auntie Roo and the latter film, also starring Winters, were released in an MGM Midnite Movies Double Feature, and Winters requested that Helen's director Harrington direct the picture.

Plot

Rosie Forrest, known as "Auntie Roo", is a kind-mannered and children-loving American widow who resides at her English mansion, Forrest Grange, which she inherited from her British husband, an internationally acclaimed magician. Each year, she throws a lavish overnight Christmas party for ten of the best-mannered children at the local orphanage. Despite her warm demeanor, Rosie is in fact demented and mentally-ill, and keeps the mummified remains of her daughter Katharine in a nursery room in the attic, singing lullabies to her and trying to contact her spirit with the assistance of charlatan psychic Mr. Benton. On Christmas Eve, after the orphans are put to bed, Benton fools Rosie into believing that the voice of Clarine, one of the servants, during a staged séance is that of Katharine.
Christopher and Katy Coombs are an orphaned brother and sister. Christopher has a wild imagination, telling stories about dragons and witches that frighten the other orphans. When he and Katy are not included in the list of ten orphans for the Christmas party at Auntie Roo's mansion, the two sneak into the car of Inspector Willoughby, who transfers the orphans to Forrest Grange, and are warmly welcomed by Auntie Roo. Auntie Roo is surprised to see the resemblance of her daughter Katharine to Katy and grows swiftly obsessed with her. After Christmas Day, Katy goes missing as the party ends and the other orphans leave. Auntie Roo promises to find her and send her back. Christopher soon suspects that Katy has been kidnapped by Auntie Roo. Meanwhile, Albie, the young, sadistic butler, discovers that Auntie Roo has Katy locked in the nursery room. He blackmails her into giving him £2,000 by threatening to reveal her secret to the police unless she pays to keep him quiet. After this, he and Clarine depart from the mansion and leave her alone with Katy.
When no one believes Christopher about seeing Auntie Roo singing lullabies to the mummified Katharine, or that she has abducted Katy, he runs away to the mansion, but ends up trapped inside too. Auntie Roo wants to replace Katy for Katharine, but in Christopher's mind, he thinks Auntie Roo is really a witch wanting to devour him and his sister. Auntie Roo prepares a dinner for the coming New Year, while Christopher assists her. He steals the key to the nursery room.
After Christopher frees Katy, Auntie Roo chases them to the kitchen, where Christopher tries to protect them with a knife. Knocking it from his hand with a piece of wood, Auntie Roo corners them in the pantry and locks the door. Auntie Roo hears in her mind her daughter shouting for her and runs to her coffin in the attic. When she tries to touch the corpse's face, it disintegrates to dust. Auntie Roo returns to the kitchen in a highly agitated state yelling "I have nothing, I have nothing." She turns the hourglass over to time her cooking and starts chopping potatoes with a large cleaver. She then hears the children from the pantry calling to her to let them out, but she resists listening to them. Katy then says "Please, Mommy", touching the heart of Auntie Roo. Completely lost in her delusions, she opens the door to embrace Katy. Christopher knocks things from the high shelf, causing Auntie Roo to fall. The children lock the door, but Auntie Roo begins hacking at it with a cleaver.
Christopher and Katy place the firewood that he had been fetching at the door and set it on fire with paraffin. Smashing through parts of the door with the cleaver, Auntie Roo sees the fire and it comes into the pantry, surrounding her. Auntie Roo, deep in her psychosis, falls in a corner. The children emerge from the smoked-filled building, carrying the almost-forgotten teddy bear that belonged to Katharine, while Auntie Roo, surrounded by fire, shouts at Katy to come back to her.
Outside, the orphans meet Auntie Roo's butcher, Mr. Harrison, who is delivering a whole piglet by horse-cart. He sees the smoke inside and drives off to call the fire brigade. Katy realizes that she was to cook the pig, but Christopher says that they were to be eaten after it. When he leaves, Christopher quips, "Bloody good fire", while inside, the whole cellar goes up in flames. The fire brigade arrives and puts out the fire, but are unable to rescue Auntie Roo. Inspector Willoughby will take the children back to the orphanage. Still outside Auntie Roo's mansion, Dr. Mason comments "Poor little devils, they'll probably have nightmares till the day they die". Christopher and Katy smile at each other, departing from the burned mansion, with Christopher ending the tale by saying "Hansel and Gretel knew that the wicked witch could not harm anyone else and they were happy. They also knew that with the wicked witch's treasure, they would not be hungry again. So they lived happily ever after."

Cast

Production

A co-production between the United States and the United Kingdom, the film was shot at Shepperton Studios in Shepperton, England in the spring of 1971.

Release

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? was released theatrically in the United States in late 1971, opening regionally in several cities in Ohio and Pennsylvania on December 22, 1971.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 57% based on, with a weighted average rating of 4.9/10.
Craig Butler from Allmovie wrote, "If one is in the right frame of mind, Who Slew Auntie Roo? can be a lot of ghoulish fun. It's not good, mind you; as a matter of fact, Roo is basically trash. But it's campy and silly and just the ticket if you're in the mood for a film that makes you groan at its inanity as often as it makes you shiver." On his website Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings, Dave Sindelar stated that the film "never really becomes either a full-blooded horror movie or an effective variation on the fairy tale. The scare scenes would be more effective if they didn’t seem so arbitrary, and the last third of the movie fails to build up the necessary tension or suspense." TV Guide awarded the film 2/5 stars, and stated that the film "walks a fine line between good and bad taste, manipulating audience expectations and loyalties gleefully and shamelessly." The Terror Trap gave the film 3/4 stars, writing, "A nice retelling of the classic fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, this is lovingly directed by genre regular Curtis Harrington."