Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?

"She's Taking a STAB at Motherhood!"

1972 1h 31m EN

😐

6.2

MID

★6.2TMDB · 77

HorrorThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Mrs Rosie Forrest, aka 'Auntie Roo', has a holiday tradition of inviting orphans to her mansion for a party. But Roo isn't completely sane; she lost her husband and is obsessed with her deceased daughter, whose corpse she still keeps in the house. When Katy Coombs sneaks into the party with her brother, Christopher, the deranged biddy abducts the young girl with the hopes of replacing her daughter.

“She's Taking a STAB at Motherhood!”

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Cast

Shelley Winters
Mrs Rosie Forrest / 'Auntie Roo'
Mark Lester
Christopher Coombs
Chloe Franks
Katy Coombs
Ralph Richardson
Mr Benton
Lionel Jeffries
Police Insp. Willoughby
Hugh Griffith
Mr Harrison, The Pigman
Rosalie Crutchley
Miss Henley
Pat Heywood
Dr Mason

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Curtis Harrington
Writers: Robert Blees, Jimmy Sangster, David D. Osborn
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

54 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Curtis Harrington, shot by Desmond Dickinson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Kenneth V. Jones. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Tristam Cones shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Shelley Winters and Mark Lester and Chloe Franks carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "She's Taking a STAB at Motherhood!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0067983 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Curtis Harrington directs. Desmond Dickinson behind the camera. Kenneth V. Jones scores. Tristam Cones cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
254 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by Curtis Harrington, shot by Desmond Dickinson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Kenneth V. Jones. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Tristam Cones shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Shelley Winters and Mark Lester and Chloe Franks carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "She's Taking a STAB at Motherhood!".
8IMDB entry: tt0067983 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 77 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
10Classified under 17 themes, including "new year's eve", "kidnapping", "brother", "christmas tree".

The technical file

Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson
Original score: Kenneth V. Jones
Editing: Tristam Cones
Makeup / hair: Pat McDermott
Runtime: 91 min · 1h 31m
Status: Released
Budget: $800,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)

Also by

Curtis Harrington

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2023-05-28
★ 6/10
Shelley Winters is super in this oddball horror. She ("Mrs. Forrest") invites ten young children into her mansion-cum-orphanage one Christmas - desperate to fill the void left by the death of her young daughter Katherine. Two children who did not get invited - "Katy" (Chloe Franks) and her brother "Christopher" (Mark Lester) decide that they are not going to be left out - but when the girl ends up locked in the attic, it falls to her brother to manage to convince everyone that his sister has been kidnapped, and that the old lady is not of particularly sound mind! A solid cast support the star here - Sir Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries - in a straight (ash) role for a change, and the always engaging Hugh Griffith, but somehow once the film gets going I expected it to turn comedic. There just isn't any menace. Winters' performance is just scatty, never scary. Still, the ensemble delivers a reasonable script well enough and there are just about enough creepy goings on in the house to sustain it before an ending that i found rather sad.

Production companies