Watch Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? For Free

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Former stage star Auntie Roo (Shelley Winters) is the love of orphans in town come Christmas time as she invites ten lucky kids to come spend the night at her countryside estate on Christmas Eve. Two kids, Chris (Mark Lester) and Katy (Chloe Franks) Combs, who didn't make the cut sneak along to the mansion and soon their host is infatuated with Katy because she reminds her of her own missing daughter, who she has been trying to contact through séances. I'm still getting my Curtis Harrington freak on apparently as I watched this horror-thriller for the first time last night and found it to be fantastic. Reuniting after the equally great WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN (1971), director Harrington and lead Winters sure have the hysterics down in the story that draws its inspiration from Hanzel & Gretel. One of the more surprising things is both of the kid leads are also really good as well and you'll thank yourself for watching OLIVER himself get into a brawl with Winters. The rest of the cast - Ralph Richardson as a psychic, Lionel Jeffries as a policeman, Michael Gothard as the creepy butler - are fantastic too. The film has tons of Xmas spirit and, best of all, Harrington knows how to properly convey that old dark house feel perfectly. Definitely recommended if you haven't seen it.

Curtis Harrington had just directed Shelley Winters in the sinister "What's the Matter with Helen?", and so he brought her back for the equally sinister "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?". Unlike the first movie, this one doesn't look at moral gray areas. Instead it goes straight for the jugular, riffing on Hansel and Gretel with Winters in the role of the witch (who in this case is simply a disturbed woman keeping her late daughter's skeleton preserved). It's a pretty fun movie, corny though it is. Easily better than the other movie in which Winters starred that year (the obnoxious "Poseidon Adventure").So yes, can you hear your daughter's voice?

"Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" is decent enough but still watchable in the right mind-set.**SPOILERS**Shortly after her daughter's death, Mrs. Forrest, (Shelly Winters) becomes insane and tries to reconnect with her anyway she can. Thinking that the annual Christmas Party she hosts for local orphans will be helpful, she awaits news on who's coming over to her house. When the guests arrive, Christopher, (Mark Lester) and Katy Coombs, (Chloe Franks) sneak off to join the festivities. As the party begins, she begins to put extra attention on them as she feels like her dead daughter is inhabiting one of the visiting children. When all of the good behavior starts to make them suspicious of the situation, they soon realize what the intent of the trip was in the first place and soon race back to the house to stop the evil plans from going through.The Good News: When this one really tries, it does have some good stuff going in it's favor. The best part is the last half-hour, which is really the heart of the film. It's one big long action scene after another with a suspense scene thrown in after another. There's some really great chasing in here, as well as some really nice brawling going on. With all the rooms and open space in the place, it adds a great deal to the film. When the first starts and the whole place starts to come down is a fun sight, and that it takes awhile to really get going is the fun part. When the film decides to throw in some really creepy stuff, it succeeds as well. The playing around in the attic is quite creepy, with all the magic acts and the props laying around setting a great vibe for this series of scenes. They're all quite creepily done and feature enough tense moments and out-right freaky ones that make it worthwhile. This here didn't feel too bad at times.The Bad News: There isn't too much wrong here. The most notable part is that, outside of the two mentioned scenes, this feels really lackluster. There really doesn't seem to be much of an indication that there's a big deal from anything in the film. Nothing really happens, but it still feels way too unexciting or interested for most of the time. There's a lot of time spent on the orphans and their issues which makes the time spent on the scares far less important and logistical. That, plus all the time spent there in the first place, are the film's most pressing flaws, even though the main one is still the lack of enthusiasm presented for most of the film.The Final Verdict: While not all that bad, there is enough here to make it worthwhile viewing if in the proper mood. The flaws might not make it enjoyable to those not in the right state, but it's still got enough good points to make it watchable at worst.Today's Rating-PG-13: Violence

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.