Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)
A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.
- Curtis Harrington
- June Randall
- Colin M. Brewer
- Jimmy Sangster
- Robert Blees
- David D. Osborn
Rating: 6.239/10 by 69 users
Alternative Title:
Wer hat Tante Ruth angezündet? - DE
Who Slew Auntie Roo? - US
小哥哥勇救小妹妹 - CN
Country:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Runtime: 01 hour 31 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $0
Plot Keyword: new year's eve, kidnapping, brother, christmas tree, sister, orphan, house fire, teddy bear, séance, child kidnapping, fake psychic, older brother younger sister, christmas, orphan siblings, magician, death of a child, hagsploitation
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.
