What You Are in the Dark: the supposed-protagonist's actions at the film's climax, which retroactively flips the entire script on its head. 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

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. 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. 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. 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. As for a horror element, besides the dread of being burned alive, there is a beautiful Magician’s menagerie about halfway through the film that is filled with some fantastic old school props. Theater costumes and guillotines and creepy puppets. It’s brilliant set design.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". Dreaming of a White Christmas: Aunt Roo wakes up Katy and Christopher on Christmas morning by flinging open the curtains and shouting, "Children! Children! Wake up! Wake up! It's snowing!"

Please, Don't Leave Me: Aunt Roo screams and begs Katy and Christopher not to leave her alone as they flee the burning house. Another great thing is the performance by Winters. Ever since WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? we got all sorts of films with older female stars getting to play nutty characters. Often times the actresses would either underplay them or go way over-the-top but Winters doesn't do either here and that's why the film works. You never quite know if this character is a loony nut or if she's just a sad old woman who misses her dead child. You never really know what her intentions are with these kids. This mystery as works so well because of the way Winters plays the role and she deserves a lot of credit. 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. 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.

Your Home for Horror

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. 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. Sindelar, Dave (31 December 2015). "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971)". FantasticMovieMusings.com. Dave Sindelar . Retrieved 8 July 2018. Perhaps just as much a character study and tragedy as it is a horror thriller, the seasonal setting also makes “Whoever Slew Auntie Roo” worth short-listing if you’re after something that little bit different for your festive film this Christmas. It would make an interesting double bill with “ The Amazing Mr. Blunden”. 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.

Perspective Flip: Despite multiple allusions to Hansel and Gretel, the "witch" is genuinely the kindly charitable old dear that she's outwardly presented as, and never so much as threatens anyone. Meanwhile, we're told that the "Hansel" stand-in is a troublemaker at the start by the orphanage's owner, which turns out to not be the false-flag one might expect. The ending solidifies this in gruesome fashion; turns out the movie was a murder mystery all along, and the victim was the sympathetic main character.Every year at Christmas time, rich widow Mrs. Forrest (Shelley Winters) invites ten kids from the local orphanage up for a good time. This particular year two additional kids sneak into the house. Christopher (Mark Lester) and his sister Katy (Chloe Franks) eventually catch the key of Mrs. Forrest and especially the sister since she reminds the woman of her dead daughter. Before you know it the kids are staying with Mrs. Forrest but before long Christopher begins to think that she's a witch with plans to eat them. Banister Slide: Katharine died falling off a banister. When Katy slides down the same banister, Aunt Roo screams in horror, but Katy reaches the bottom safely. 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. Shelley Winters said "If they’d had a bigger budget and released it differently, things would have been a lot different for him and me. They didn’t release it like an A-picture and they should have. We had a great deal of fun rehearsing. Ralph Richardson was great in it. But they released it like a spooky, spooky picture and they shouldn’t have." [5] Reception [ edit ] Interested in knowing what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist."