Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)
1h 31m | PG-13
A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.
Director: Curtis Harrington
Studio: Hemdale
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Video: 720p
Cast
Shelley Winters
as Mrs. Forrest
Mark Lester
as Christopher Coombs
Chloe Franks
as Katy Coombs
Ralph Richardson
as Mr. Benton
Lionel Jeffries
as Police Insp. Willoughby
Hugh Griffith
as Mr. Harrison, The Pigman
Reviews
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.