Please, Don't Leave Me: Aunt Roo screams and begs Katy and Christopher not to leave her alone as they flee the burning house. Dies Wide Open: After her death, Katharine stares at the ceiling with blood coming out of her nose. Meanwhile, she’s surrounded by thieves, charlatans, and children who hear lullabies to kill by in their head. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo” is indeed a very different kettle of fish, and the dynamic between the two antagonists is a most unusual one. Just as Roo is increasingly deluded and unable to see the reality of what is around her, so too is Christopher in his own innocent way. Both are living in their own respective dream world. Harrington proves unable to effectively direct child performers or curb his lead star’s worst tendencies, paving the way for Winters to clean house in a performance ranging from supremely shrill to surprisingly sympathetic. By the time its Hansel & Gretel role reversal becomes complete, which is weakly established through wan attempts in the script asserting kids at the orphanage believe she eats children, Aunt Roo’s demise becomes the real tragedy as the film leaves us with two smug sociopaths who just committed murder. While there’s a case for arguing Harrington was intelligent enough of a filmmaker to purposefully deliver subversive context with his finale, the imperiled children are consistently presented as entitled victims, with the audience’s allegiance persuaded to accept their struggle. Meanwhile, Ralph Richardson as a doddering old medium somehow gets the short shrift when clearly his subplot would have greatly established a greater sense of menace. Disc Review:

Miss Henley: I apologize for him. He's a congenital liar with a rather overactive imagination. Christopher, you'll be very severely punished when you return.Ding-Dong-Ditch Distraction: Christopher does this to get Aunt Roo out of the kitchen long enough for him to steal the key to the nursery. This leads them to Colonel Forrest’s magic equipment, and Christopher wastes no time at all in scaring his sister shitless and then very nearly guillotining her head off. Just in case there’s anything left in her bowels, Albie the butler then joins in and chases them both off… into something equally terrifying, as Aunty Roo is ruining the Xmas atmos with that perennial child-pleaser, a Gilbert and Sullivan recital. Variety said "script is overly-contrived, but carries certain element of interest that may see it through selected bookings." [15] Dennis Fischer (1 January 1991). Horror Film Directors, 1931-1990. McFarland. p.511. ISBN 978-0-89950-609-8. As for a horror element, besides the dread of being burned alive, there is a beautiful Magician’s menagerie about halfway through the film that is filled with some fantastic old school props. Theater costumes and guillotines and creepy puppets. It’s brilliant set design.

A woman is singing a lullaby to her daughter, suddenly revealed – crash zoom! – as a desiccated corpse (an excellent jump-scare, better done here than in many more well-regarded horrors). Who is this mad woman, who believes this mummified child is still alive? Why it’s none other than Mrs Forrest (Shelley Winters), the American widow living in the big house who every year invites children from the local orphanage to spend Christmas with her, that’s who (or, if yopu prefer, Roo).Perhaps just as much a character study and tragedy as it is a horror thriller, the seasonal setting also makes “Whoever Slew Auntie Roo” worth short-listing if you’re after something that little bit different for your festive film this Christmas. It would make an interesting double bill with “ The Amazing Mr. Blunden”.

It’s grief that pulls at the heart in this one. Perhaps in my own role as initiator of life, I’ve developed a way to empathize even in the adverse pathology of mania. Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Christopher's actions at the film's climax are abhorrent, but justifiable through the lens of his delusion. He is, after all, protecting his sister's very life. Straight after trapping Auntie Roo and setting the door on fire, he is presented evidence that he was wrong and that she genuinely meant only to treat them. Even his younger sister can see this, and points it out. He casually dismisses her and comments on how pretty the fire is. Then proceeds to garner sympathy from the adults by feigning trauma & claiming he was only even there to help. Actual supervillain origin story. The first part is as delightful as the cakes,the sweets ,the lollipops and the gingerbread men which the good lady serves to the orphans she welcomes for her Christmas party in her Gothic desirable mansion.This mysterious woman,with a racy past ,was married to a magician (remarkable scene when the two children venture into the old house full of magic props where once more,we are told that children are not necessarily devoid of cruelty. Five-Second Foreshadowing: In one of the final scenes of the movie, when Christopher brings firewood into the kitchen to place besides the open-flame stove, the establishing shot of him entering the room lingers long enough for everyone to see the mason jar on a counter in the foreground framed right next to him and read the clear, legible, painted-on label of "paraffin". Punk in the Trunk: Katy and Christopher aren't invited to Aunt Roo's Christmas party, so they hide in the trunk of the carriage taking the guests.Decoy Protagonist: Christopher. The title of the movie says it all; this is Roo's sympathetic story, about Roo's tragic life, and Roo's ignominious death. He's ultimately the villain. It’s at this point the audience starts to think “what is this?”, because the film has become a weird mix of children’s film, psycho thriller and ghost story. Every year, Rosie Forrest, known as "Auntie Roo", throws a lavish overnight Christmas party for ten of the best-mannered children at the local orphanage. Despite her warm demeanour, Rosie is in fact demented and mentally ill and keeps the mummified remains of her daughter Katharine in a nursery room in the attic. Could she be responsible for her daughter’s death? Is that a real ghost? Why does she prefer to be called “Roo”? Just because it rhymes with “slew”? Or simply because she kan(ga)? Some of these questions will be answered over the next 90 minutes. Harrington says it was his idea to set the film in the 1920s. "I have a great fondness for all the imagery and quality of the traditional Victorian Christmas celebration. I tried to put as much as I could of that in the film." [1]

I guess this story just goes to prove how cruel society and people can be to traumatised people without trying to understand them, just because they are adults. If the roles of this film were reversed, everyone's sympathy would still lie with the children... Interested in knowing what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist." While the evil nature serves the character, Albie is so overwhelmingly avaricious and vile that he jumps the shark. HeartthrobMany viewers ignore her staff who bleed her white. Despite showing loads of kindnesses to orphaned children, she is further still abused by two of the most ungrateful among them. Consequently, 'Aunt Roo' transforms from just being traumatised to mentally disturbed, and the tragic end to the movie ensues.