The Worst Film Ever

Don't Believe the Hype

Absolutely brilliant

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Shelley Winters stars as widower Mrs. Forrest, who, having lost her daughter Katherine in an accident, now enjoys the company of children from the local orphanage, throwing a party for the best behaved kids at her house each Christmas. When Christopher Coombs (Mark Lester) and his younger sister Katy (Chloe Franks) crash the party, Mrs. Forrest takes a particular liking to the little girl, who reminds her of her own dear departed daughter. Her feelings towards Katy quickly become an obsession and she schemes to keep the girl as her own, although Christopher, convinced that the woman is a witch, is determined to rescue his sibling no matter what.Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? is quite the oddity, drawing inspiration from the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, with Mrs. Forrest tempting the kids with sugary treats to fatten them up, and preparing a roaring oven in the kitchen, which Christopher believes is intended for both he and his sister. Adding to the twisted atmosphere is the dessicated corpse of little Katherine that her progressively loopy mother keeps hidden in a secret room. All of this had bags of potential to be a thoroughly demented classic of macabre cinema, but the rather restrained execution prevents it from being so. Winters tries her best, hamming it up as much as possible in every scene, but even her best efforts fail to make this the ghoulish treat it could so easily have been.For a far more effective off-beat approach to the Hansel and Gretel story, watch Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby. Now that is seriously messed up!

This takes place in 1920s England. Mrs. Forrest (Shelley Winters) lives in this big old mansion by herself. She had a daughter who disappeared years ago...and she never forgot her. Every Christmas she opens her house to kids at a nearby orphanage. One Christmas she meets young Katie (Chloe Franks) who looks just like her daughter. She plans to keep Katie forever but Katie's protective older brother Christopher (Mark Lester) won't let that happen.VERY mild horror film...it barely qualifies as horror! It's more funny than scary to see Winters chewing the scenery non-stop. The story is no more than an updating of "Hansel and Gretel" and is VERY thin. There's tons of filler and it gets boring when Winters isn't on screen. Also Lester and Franks are pretty bad in their roles. Still it LOOKS great (the DVD transfer is great) and it is well-directed by Curtis Harrington, but it's just not scary enough.

Apparently 1971 was a heck of a year for Shelley Winters. She made "What's The Matter With Helen?" and "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?"--two movies where she played characters that were a crayons short of a full box (in other words, she was bonkers). Both are on a single DVD and are a lot of kitschy fun.The film starts with Winters telling her daughter a bedtime story and the scene is quite charming...until the camera pulls back and you see that the child is dead and has been there for a very, very long time! Creepy. You soon see that Winters is indeed daffy and a psychic (Ralph Richardson) comes to the house and they have a séance--Winters is desperately trying to dead daughter.A bit later, a group of orphans are invited to this weird lady's home. Apparently, each Christmas she invites a group of lucky kids to her mansion and showers them with love and presents and food. It looks wonderful. However, you know that Winters is imbalanced--though she acts more like some sort of angel. Two orphans sneak into the carriage with the rest and want to be part of the fun. The nasty lady from the orphanage is appalled (these kids are "bad" in her nasty mind) but Winters insists that they, too, should stay.These two particular kids just happen to be in the wrong place at the right time. The oldest (Mark Lester--who STILL looks like he needs a haircut following his role in "Oliver!") is quite inquisitive and searches throughout the house finding all kinds of creepy props from Winters' deceased husband (a magician) as well as a secret room--Winters' dead daughter's room (though fortunately the corpse is now hidden). As for the little girl, she has the same name as the dead daughter and reminds Winters of her lost child. So, in a move that Lester thinks is akin to the witch in "Hansel & Gretel", Winters steals the little girl and hides her in the hidden room. Why she didn't just adopt the kid, I have no idea. Regardless, Lester returns to the home to find his sister. What's in store for the kids? Is this crazy old lady going to eat them or do them other bodily harm? Or is she just a crazy but harmless lady who is trying to replace her lost child? Will she love them or eat them? Tune in a find out where all this goes in this creepy and atmospheric tale. There is a lot to like in this film. First, the atmosphere is super-creepy. Second, and this is my favorite part, you never are really sure about Winters--is she crazy but harmless and a bit sad or is she a dangerous psycho? This isn't real clear--and makes for a really, really unique viewing experience. Third, the ending is mega-creepy and will make your skin crawl a bit! Overall, an exciting low-brow bit of entertainment that horror fans should adore.

Mischievous Christopher (the terrific Mark Lester of "Oliver!" and "Eyewitness" fame) and his sweet little sister Katy (adorable blonde sprite Chloe Franks, who played the daughters of Christopher Lee in "The House That Dripped Blood" and Joan Collins in "Tales from the Crypt") are a couple of orphans living in Great Britian in the 1920's. Christopher convinces Katy that loopy recluse Rosie "Auntie Roo" Forrest (Shelley Winters chewing the scenery with her trademark four-sheets-to-the-wind hambone panache), a former music hall singer who once a year invites a bunch of kids to her huge, crumbling mansion for Christmas diner, is really a witch who plans to fatten Katy up and eat her. Director Curtis Harrington, adapting a fiendishly clever script co-written by veteran Hammer horror film scribe Jimmy ("The Curse of Frankenstein," "The Horror of Dracula") Sangster, whips up a delightfully twisted and darkly amusing Gothic black comedy version of "Hansel and Gretel." The first-rate cast have a ball with their juicy parts: Ralph Richardson as an eccentric charlatan medium, Michael Gothard (the crazed killer in "Scream and Scream Again") as a mean butler, Lionel Jeffries as a friendly, hearty police inspector, Hugh Griffiths as a jolly butcher, and Marianne Stone as a strict orphanage supervisor. Desmond Dickinson's polished cinematography, Kenneth J. Jones' spooky orchestral score, and the marvelously macabre conclusion are all solid and satisfying as well. Good, ghoulish fun.