Retro Review: WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? (1971)
SHELLY WINTERS as Auntie Roo, a wealthy widow hiding a macabre secret.
The holiday season has begun, and so has the season for giving. Whether it’s food drives, toy drives, or showing our teachers, postal employees, and other essential workers just how appreciated they are, the holidays are about generosity of spirit, not just generosity of wallet. But what the motives behind that generosity are tainted by grief, narcissism, and delusion? What if, instead of a Santa Claus, you found a witch hiding in Santa’s clothing? In CURTIS HARRINGTON’S Hansel and Gretel- themed holiday horror tale, WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO?, one-woman’s seemingly selfless generosity hides a much darker and twisted secret.
In the film, Auntie Roo invites the poor kids from the local orphanage to her mansion for an annual holiday party.
PLOT:
Mrs. Forrest (aka Auntie Roo, played by SHELLEY WINTERS), is a rich, lonely, widow who is known for throwing an annual Christmas party at her mansion for the children of the local orphanage. But all is not what it seems with Auntie Roo. Ever since the death of her daughter, Katharine, Auntie Roo has become obsessed with contacting her spirit through the use of a shady medium named Mr. Benton (RALPH RICHARDSON), and even keeps the daughter’s now extremely decayed corpse in a crib. However, when a brother and sister (Christopher and Katy, played by MARK LESTER and CHLOE FRANKS respectively), sneak into her annual holiday party, Auntie Roo sets her deranged sights on the young girl and her brother must come to her rescue.
Beware the wrath of Auntie Roo.
KILLS:
For those looking for a high body count and/or gory kills, get ready to be disappointed. In fact, the only kill is the one foretold in the film's title, so it’s not surprising at all when it finally happens, nor is it surprising when we find out who it is who did said “slewing.” What makes this film unsettling isn’t the kills, it's more of the twisted mindset of Auntie Roo, who acts as the witch to Christopher and Katy’s HANSEL & GRETEL. The film actually plays directly into this Grimm fairy-tale, not only story-wise, but also with interspersed moments where Christopher internally recites passages from the tale. Once he and Katy arrive at Auntie Roo’s party after sneaking in with the rest of the orphans who were selected to attend, Christopher starts to piece together that things aren’t quite right with this seemingly kindly widow. He hears some of the adults mention that her daughter disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and discovers that night after everyone else has gone to bed, that she uses a medium to try and communicate with the girl's dead spirit. He rightly becomes immediately suspicious when Auntie Roo wants to adopt Katy, especially when we start to understand that Auntie Roo sees Katy as the embodiment of her daughter’s dead spirit. In a particularly chilling scene, Christopher sneaks into a dumbwaiter in a service closet and pulls himself up to the nursery. There, he sees Auntie Roo, dressed all in black, singing, and moving the now-skeletal remains of her daughter from a cradle to a small coffin. He, along with us, are horrified at the scene.
Once Auntie Roo ostensibly kidnaps Katy, things really begin to ramp up. The local police descend to search the house and the grounds, but find nothing (apparently they didn’t look in the nursery, because that’s where she’s been keeping her). Christopher is able to sneak back onto the property to try and break Katy out but is quickly captured by Auntie Roo. Eventually, the two cockney tots are able to lock her into a pantry, and set it ablaze with her inside, with Christopher fondly recalling a line from the famous HANSEL & GRETEL tale: “they shoved the wicked witch into the fire and slammed the bolt on the oven door.”
In WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? the nursery is home to Auntie Roo’s terrible secrets.
VISUALS/SFX:
Looks-wise, the film itself would be fairly unremarkable if not for the work of famed cinematographer DESMOND DICKENSON, who makes Auntie Roo’s cavernous mansion its own character in the story. With its multiple rooms, secret passageways, staircases, and long hallways, her sprawling estate becomes an apt metaphor for all the secrets Auntie Roo hides from the world, where, just like her secret desk drawer hiding her expensive jewels, she can conceal all of her horrible truths from the outside world. The scenes of the holiday party feel warm and comforting - a giant Christmas tree and garlands hung everywhere, with candy apples that the kids happily consume ensconced in their Victorian-esque nightgowns, and a roaring fire where Auntie Roo reads THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS to them. But all of that is window-dressing for the macabre secrets she is desperate to keep from the outside world. It may look like a shiny candy apple on the outside, but inside it’s rotten to the core.
MARK LESTER as Christopher Coombs and CHLOE FRANKS as Katy Coombs in WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO?
PERFORMANCES:
There’s no doubt as to who the star is of this film, and that’s SHELLY WINTERS. We know it, and SHELLY WINTERS definitely knows it, as she doesn’t miss an opportunity to play to the rafters in every scene she’s in. Don’t get me wrong, I think Winters is a fantastic actress and singer, and seeing her go full-tilt diva in this film was absolutely captivating to watch. At moments, she vacillates wildly between cooing, loving grandmother-type and menacing, deranged crone. It’s engrossing, entertaining, and baffling. Saying that, her performance is not without its subtleties. Throughout the film, it’s Auntie Roo’s ever-present grief and guilt over the death of her daughter that stokes any sympathy we have for her. She pays Mr. Benton, a charlatan disguised as a legitimate medium, for regular seances at her home so that she can speak to the spirit of her daughter. One manipulator is bad enough, but when we discover that her butler Albie (MICHAEL GOTHARD) and her maid Clarine (JUDY CORNWELL) are in on the scam as well, we realize just how isolated and alone in her grief Auntie Roo really is.
As Christopher and Katy Coombs, MARK LESTER and CHLOE FRANKS portray the down-on-their-luck brother and sister with a wide-eyed innocence that belies their true nature. Their sweet British accents, dimpled cheeks, and golden locks provide a convincing front to gullible adults, because these kids are far from innocent. One of the best mis-directions the film provides is spending all this time cultivating Auntie Roo as the obvious villain of the film, and make no mistake, she is, but though she may be a witch, it is HANSEL & GRETEL who push her into the oven and shut the door. Katy and Christopher are children of the child welfare system, becoming hardened survivors and learning that they can only rely on each other in the world. Auntie Roo may be narcissistic and deranged but Katy and Christopher are calculating and opportunistic. Once Auntie Roo (and by extension, her house) have been set ablaze, Christopher heads back inside to steal her jewels, hiding them in a teddy bear, and once safely outside, comments: “Bloody good fire,” as he fondly watches his conflagration handiwork. Yeesh. That kid could give the CHILDREN OF THE CORN’S Isaac a run for his money in the creeptastic department.
The kids are not all right in WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO?
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:
Though this film lacks in kills and gore, it is no less chilling for the lack of it. Whether it was the intent of the filmmakers to make Katy and Christopher the most terrifying characters in the film or not, well, mission accomplished. Yes, Auntie Roo kidnaps a child, threatens kids with a meat cleaver, and keeps a corpse in her house, but her “villainy” is painted through the lens of grief and guilt. She is a desperate woman in so many ways, desperate for love, for absolution, and so her actions come off more as sad and pitiable, rather than cold and calculating. Katy and Christopher, on the other hand, are shrewd survivors. From the start, they manipulate their way into the party, even though they weren’t selected to go, knowing that Auntie Roo lavishes her attendees with gifts and treats. They discover where she hides her money and jewels and don’t hesitate to go for them, even when that means going back to a burning house. Even when they lock Auntie Roo in the pantry, set wood in front of it, douse it paraffin wax and set it ablaze, it’s not truly out of necessity. Yes, she had a meat cleaver and could eventually get out, but they could just run and get help - killing her wasn’t necessary for escape. Neither was that deadass creepy smile that Christopher gives the camera as the pantry door goes up in flames. The kids are not alright, and really, the take-away from this film is that children are not necessarily devoid of cruelty. That idea is especially put into sharp relief once the police descend upon the conflagration. They immediately take sympathy with Katy and Christopher, tutting, “poor kids, they’ll probably have nightmares ‘til the day they die,” while Katy and Christopher smile knowingly at each other. Maybe it’s just me, because in both fairy tales and films, I’m always going to sympathize with the witch, but that, my friends, is some cold, sociopathic killer shit.
As SNL’s Stephon would say, this movie has it all: cockney orphans, monologuing, baby coffins, dumbwaiters, meat cleavers, seances, a child’s corpse, ham-fisted fairy-tale metaphors, and gingerbread men. Did you read that in his voice, cause’ I did. Though the film does have a lot going for it, I do wish they had pushed the envelope a little more on the horror factor. However, that’s not to say that this movie doesn’t have it’s creepy moments, and though the message of the film may be to be wary of the witch in the gingerbread house, don’t forget that it was Hansel & Gretel that ate the witch’s house and put her in the oven.
The dead don’t stay dead in WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO?
THE GORY DETAILS:
Although the film is set at Christmas time, it was actually shot in the spring of 1971.
The cast includes two Oscar winners, SHELLY WINTERS, who won for Best Supporting Actress in THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK and HUGH GRIFFITH, who won Best Supporting Actor for BEN-HUR. Incidentally, both actors won their Oscars in the same year (1959).
The tagline for this film is, “Have You Ever Held a Skeleton In Your Arms?”
MY RATING:
4.5/10
WHERE TO WATCH:
Amazon Prime, Sling TV, and Vudu.
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