Director: Curtis Harrington
Script: Robert Blees & Jimmy Sangster
Cast: Shelley Winters, Mark Lester, Ralph Richardson, Judy Cornwell, Michael Gothard, Hugh Griffith, Lionel Jefferies
Running time: 92 minutes
Year: 1971
Certificate: 15
Following the untimely death of her daughter, Katherine, Mrs Forest (Shelley Winters), who now lives on her own in a large mansion, becomes obsessed with speaking to her daughter via séances and still keeps her daughter’s body in a hidden nursery. More positively, she doesn’t just sit around grieving her husband’s disappearance or daughter’s tragic death, but also puts on events to entertain local orphans. The most hotly anticipated event by the children is the annual Christmas gathering whereby 10 orphans are selected to go and stay with Mrs Forest for a couple of days for Christmas. However, this year the number increases by two as Christopher (Lester) and his younger sister (Katy) gate-crash the party!
Despite protestations from their tutors, the two orphan strays are invited to stay by Mrs Forest who soon develops a soft spot for Katy as she reminds her of the daughter she lost years before. After the rest of the children have gone back to the orphanage, Katy is essentially kidnapped by Forest, while Christopher hides within the house to keep an eye out for his younger sister. Unfortunately, it soon becomes apparent that the children’s new benefactor is also fast losing her sanity and so begins a potentially deadly game of cat and mice.
Who Slew Auntie Roo? is the sort of film they wouldn’t make these days, but luckily we still are able to appreciate this well-made psycho-drama, replete with a number of somewhat non-PC elements.
What really drives the film is the central performance by Shelley Winters who by turns is lovely, deceitful and pitiful; sometimes all at once. Mrs Forest is clearly a person who hasn’t been able to let go of her daughter, even in death, and can’t get over the fact that her disappeared husband – who was a stage magician – left her after the loss of their child.
The two main child actors (Chloe Franks and Mark Lester) are really good too, and bring subtle nuances to their characters, especially Franks who really plays on Mrs Forest’s weaknesses, manipulating her when she wants something. And Christopher is also an interesting character, one who spends much of his time living in a fairy-tale world, likening him and his sister to Hansel and Gretel, and Mrs Forest as the witch who wants to cook and eat them.
A side plot concerning Mr Bennington (Ralph Richardson) as a fake medium, working in cahoots with Mrs Forest’s butler, Alfie (Gothard), to extract regular payments out of her to speak to her daughter is somewhat unnecessary, although Christopher soon works out who is really pretending to be the late Katherine, i.e. one of the maids, speaking via some pipework in the old house.
More of a thriller than an out-and-out horror film, Who Slew Auntie Roo? does still have some disturbing imagery including a decaying child’s skeleton and a dramatic immolation. Fans of the hagsploitation subgenre will really enjoy this one, as will fans of Poe-like melodramas and Hammer Films’ psychological horrors. Hammer Films have done a good job restoring this often overlooked movie, which is definitely worth a look.
Extras include:
Audio Commentary with Alexandra Hellar-Nicholas, author of 10 Best Hagspoitation Films – Alexandra provides quite an academic treatise on the film, slotting it into the ‘psychobiddy’ subgenre, and discusses the unfortunate phenomena of women, in particular, becoming devalued as they get older.
Textless Trailer (2 min) – A trailer without text – one that emphasises the fact that the film’s title isn’t actually very good.
Original Theatrical Trailer (2.12 mins) – This employs a fairy tale aspect to the film and is nicely edited.
Radio spots (3.03 mins) – These play over various posters for the film and range from 30 seconds to just over a minute in length.
Grief as horror – written and narrated by Heather Wixon (19.02 mins) – Heather explores what is really going on, psychologically, with the film’s main character and how the film is really about a lonely woman seeking meaningful company at any cost. Heather reminds the viewer of how devastating the sequence is whereby Mrs Forest accidentally breaks her dead daughter’s skull when moving the body.
Image gallery (2.28 mins) – Includes posters, lobby cards and stills, both in colour and black and white.
