WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO (1971)

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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. 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. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (U.S. title: Who Slew Auntie Roo? [2]) is a 1972 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 her dead daughter. Christopher and Katy are caught by Roo’s weirdly nasty butler, Albie (Michael Gothard), who threatens them with a knife (Roo: “That’s not a knife…” no, this didn’t actually happen – I’m just expanding on the hilarious kangaroo /Australia jokes. Don’t worry, this is unlikely to be the last one) before bringing them into the party, where Roo takes pity on them and invites them to stay (“Can we stay?” / “Of course you kanga.”) Who Slew Auntie Roo?". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on 13 July 2020.

Harrington is an un-showy but evocative stylist and weaves quite an atmosphere out of the creepy fairytale setting and claustrophobic interiors. It’s well acted by Winters and a cast of cherished British character actors but compared to Night of the Hunter (1955) and Hansel and Gretel (2007) offers a shallow subversion of childhood terrors. 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 film was based on a storyline from Jimmy Sangster inspired by Hansel and Gretel. Sam Arkoff and James Nicholson of AIP hired Robert Blees to write a script which Harrington was dissatisfied with so the director arranged for the script to be rewritten by Gavin Lambert. [6]

Whole-Plot Reference: To " Hansel and Gretel." Christopher notices the similarities, which causes him to incorrectly assume Aunt Roo is a cannibal. Rosie "Aunt Roo" Forrest (Winters) is an American-born widow who lives at Forrest Grange, the English manor she inherited from her late husband, a famous magician. Each Christmas, she throws a party for the ten best-behaved children from the nearby Home for Orphaned and Destitute Children. One year, siblings Christopher (Lester) and Katy Coombs (Franks) arrive at her party. Aunt Roo becomes obsessed with Katy, who closely resembles her dead daughter Katharine, and wants to adopt her. But Christopher is suspicious.Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? was released theatrically in the United States in late 1971, opening regionally in several cities in Ohio [12] [13] and Pennsylvania on December 22, 1971. [14] Dialing down the deplorable nature of, well everyone, would serve another go at the story. There’s true emotion at the root of the tale, and when you have that you can always build out. Tying the amplified sorrow to the Christmas season as well would make for a great Christmas horror. Spawns

There are a lot of things to like about the picture including the atmosphere that director Harrington builds. I really thought the setting was perfect and the director really used it to build up a creepy atmosphere. There's almost a dream-like quality to it and this really helps the film. It's almost as if you're watching a kid's dream turn into a nightmare and this is the film's strongest point. The cinematography is another great thing about the picture as is the nice music score, which fits the film perfectly. Miss Henley: I apologize for him. He's a congenital liar with a rather overactive imagination. Christopher, you'll be very severely punished when you return.Five-Second Foreshadowing: In one of the final scenes of the movie, when Christopher brings firewood into the kitchen to place besides the open-flame stove, the establishing shot of him entering the room lingers long enough for everyone to see the mason jar on a counter in the foreground framed right next to him and read the clear, legible, painted-on label of "paraffin". What’s the Matter with Helen? deservedly became a hit and the big-wigs at AIP evidently wanted more of the same from Harrington and Winters. Unfortunately this follow-up suffers from a multi-authored screenplay, with veteran Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster and co-writers Robert Blees and Gavin Lambert seemingly unable to agree on what the movie is supposed to be. A straightforward kids-in-peril psycho-thriller with a fairytale twist? Or a subversive peek inside a child’s distorted fantasy world? It’s unsatisfying on both counts, emerging as a muddled reinterpretation of Hansel and Gretel. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo” is indeed a very different kettle of fish, and the dynamic between the two antagonists is a most unusual one. Just as Roo is increasingly deluded and unable to see the reality of what is around her, so too is Christopher in his own innocent way. Both are living in their own respective dream world. Career Versus Man: Aunt Roo was once a celebrated singer and dancer performing in Paris, but she gave it up to marry Col. Forrest.