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.

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!" Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" is a great horror movie, with the fable of "Hansel and Gretel" in the mind of an innocent orphan. The plot and characters are well-developed and with excellent cast. The dark conclusion is excellent. My vote is seven. Shelley Winters' performance still brings tears to my eyes when she cries and yearns for her dead child, only to find out she's been made a fool of - enough to drive anyone insane!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. Fans of Shelley Winters should appreciate her performance as Auntie Roo, a batty, rich dame who spoils children, hosts elaborate Christmas parties, and desperately wishes to believe in the supernatural. But anyone expecting thrills, either campy or creepy, will be disappointed in this Curtis Harrington title, a director who usually excels in weird, offbeat genre efforts.

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. 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. A woman is singing a lullaby to her daughter, suddenly revealed – crash zoom! – as a desiccated corpse (an excellent jump-scare, better done here than in many more well-regarded horrors). Who is this mad woman, who believes this mummified child is still alive? Why it’s none other than Mrs Forrest (Shelley Winters), the American widow living in the big house who every year invites children from the local orphanage to spend Christmas with her, that’s who (or, if yopu prefer, Roo).

The film was originally called The Gingerbread House which Harrington felt was the best title but it had to be changed due to its similarities to the Neil Simon play, The Gingerbread Lady. [8]

Harrington was going to direct Wuthering Heights in England for AIP but did this instead after Shelley Winters requested him. Shelley Winters had worked with Harrington on What's the Matter with Helen? and asked for him on this movie "because of his ability with actors. I thought he would be wonderful." [5] Harrington says it was not a project "I personally wanted particularly to do." [1] Shelley Winters, Mark Lester, Chloe Franks, Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith, Rosalie Crutchley, Pat Heywood, Judy Cornwell, Michael Gothard, Jacqueline Cowper, Richard Beaumont, Charlotte Sayce, Marianne Stone 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. His inner monologue recites the Brothers Grimm tale of Hansel and Gretel, which he apparently took as a true story that cautioned him to be wary of any Woman in an apron willing to cook him a hot meal.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.