VALUTAZIONE IMDb
6,1/10
2726
LA TUA VALUTAZIONE
Aggiungi una trama nella tua linguaA demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.A demented widow lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.
- Regia
- Sceneggiatura
- Star
Jackie Cowper
- Angela Barnes
- (as Jacqueline Cowper)
Dorian Healy
- Reggie Pike
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
Recensioni in evidenza
10arrival
Probably Shelley Winters' greatest Movie - though I suspect many would disagree.
Many viewers delight in name-calling 'Aunt Roo' as 'nuts' 'crazy' 'evil' etc., but many fail to see the sad and pathetic side to this unfortunate character.
Aunt Roo (played marvellously by the wonderful Shelley Winters) is clearly traumatised by the tragic death of her only child. Left widowed in an isolated mansion to live all by herself, she is taken advantage of, and her 'damaged' mind from the trauma of her loss is cruelly and sadistically abused by her staff who pretend to be her dead daughter come back during false seances.
Many 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.
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...
Shelley Winters' performance still brings tears to my eyes when she cries and yearns for her dead child, only to find out she's been made a fool of - enough to drive anyone insane!
A fabulous Movie, and a fabulous story. It's often likened to Hansel And Gretel, but I think it's far more complicated than that - poor 'Aunt Roo'!
Many viewers delight in name-calling 'Aunt Roo' as 'nuts' 'crazy' 'evil' etc., but many fail to see the sad and pathetic side to this unfortunate character.
Aunt Roo (played marvellously by the wonderful Shelley Winters) is clearly traumatised by the tragic death of her only child. Left widowed in an isolated mansion to live all by herself, she is taken advantage of, and her 'damaged' mind from the trauma of her loss is cruelly and sadistically abused by her staff who pretend to be her dead daughter come back during false seances.
Many 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.
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...
Shelley Winters' performance still brings tears to my eyes when she cries and yearns for her dead child, only to find out she's been made a fool of - enough to drive anyone insane!
A fabulous Movie, and a fabulous story. It's often likened to Hansel And Gretel, but I think it's far more complicated than that - poor 'Aunt Roo'!
From the opening scene, it is obvious that Rosie Forrest (aka Auntie Roo) is completely insane. She lives alone in a magnificent mansion in 1920s England and will never get over the death of her young daughter. In an attempt to fill this void, Auntie Roo has an annual Christmas party for a few of the best behaved children from the local orphanage. This year, a misbehaving brother and sister stowaway in the trunk of the car and join the party. Auntie Roo starts to believe the girl is her daughter, while the boy is convinced Auntie Roo is a witch. Mayhem ensues.
This is a clever, creepy, and amusing subversion of the "Hansel and Gretel" fairytale that puts forth the notion that the wicked witch might not be inherently evil or even malintentioned--just severely insane! Some of the scares are cheesy, a few of the child actors are awful (the lead girl looks and acts like she was sniffing glue during the entire production!), and it is a bit disconcerting to sit through yet another movie where Shelley Winters sings and dances like a freak. But overall, this is an underrated sick little fairytale. My Rating: 7/10
This is a clever, creepy, and amusing subversion of the "Hansel and Gretel" fairytale that puts forth the notion that the wicked witch might not be inherently evil or even malintentioned--just severely insane! Some of the scares are cheesy, a few of the child actors are awful (the lead girl looks and acts like she was sniffing glue during the entire production!), and it is a bit disconcerting to sit through yet another movie where Shelley Winters sings and dances like a freak. But overall, this is an underrated sick little fairytale. My Rating: 7/10
Shelley Winters' character is sad, pathetic, scary, and warped in this movie...and she plays it to the hilt. A broad take-off on the old "Hansel and Gretel" fairytale, this movie is pure 70's.
If you like your horror films without a lot of gore and with a lot of suspense, see "Who Slew Auntie Roo?" It's worth your time.
If you like your horror films without a lot of gore and with a lot of suspense, see "Who Slew Auntie Roo?" It's worth your time.
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.
After a seance in the dark with a charlatan medium,Roo (Winters)is quite sure that one of the orphans is her late daughter ,who rose from the dead. She wants to keep her in her house but her brother (Mark "Oliver" Lester ) is not prepared to accept it.He tells his sister about Grimm's sinister fairytale "Hansel und Gretel" in the gingerbread house.
The first hour is brilliant:the Christmas atmosphere is perfectly captured.The crepuscular quality of the film is tangible .Few other films of the seventies offer so many associations of guarded privacy and locked rooms,in such dreamlike darkness.Shelley Winters is outstanding particularly in that short scene when she goes from tears to a good laugh.
The film obviously loses steam in the last thirty minutes.Winters begins to overact to make up for the poor third of the script which is at once repetitive ,dull and predictable.We do not need Lester's voice over to understand that the children are Hansel and Gretel in the witch's den..As Freud and Bruno Bettelheim showed,fairy tales have an hidden meaning which the children unconsciously comprehend but the demonstration is pretty low brow.
Watch it anyway:its incredible several moments make it all worthwhile.
Like this?Try these....
"Les amants criminels" François Ozon 1996
"The night of the hunter" Charles Laughton 1955
"The nanny" Holt 1965
"Bunny Lake is missing" Otto Preminger 1965
After a seance in the dark with a charlatan medium,Roo (Winters)is quite sure that one of the orphans is her late daughter ,who rose from the dead. She wants to keep her in her house but her brother (Mark "Oliver" Lester ) is not prepared to accept it.He tells his sister about Grimm's sinister fairytale "Hansel und Gretel" in the gingerbread house.
The first hour is brilliant:the Christmas atmosphere is perfectly captured.The crepuscular quality of the film is tangible .Few other films of the seventies offer so many associations of guarded privacy and locked rooms,in such dreamlike darkness.Shelley Winters is outstanding particularly in that short scene when she goes from tears to a good laugh.
The film obviously loses steam in the last thirty minutes.Winters begins to overact to make up for the poor third of the script which is at once repetitive ,dull and predictable.We do not need Lester's voice over to understand that the children are Hansel and Gretel in the witch's den..As Freud and Bruno Bettelheim showed,fairy tales have an hidden meaning which the children unconsciously comprehend but the demonstration is pretty low brow.
Watch it anyway:its incredible several moments make it all worthwhile.
Like this?Try these....
"Les amants criminels" François Ozon 1996
"The night of the hunter" Charles Laughton 1955
"The nanny" Holt 1965
"Bunny Lake is missing" Otto Preminger 1965
Who Slew Auntie Roo is still one of the most cleverly constructed films of the 70s.
An interesting and fascinating take on the Hansel and Gretel story.
Mrs. Forrest (Shelley Winters) is a rich widow who had been married to a successful British Magician. He died leaving her his fortune and creepy mansion called "Forrest Grange" Their little 7 year old daughter Katherine died after falling off a banister that she was sliding down.
The film opens with Auntie Roo as she is called by the orphans singing a lullabye to what appears to be a child in a cradle. Auntie Roo quietly steals out after we think the child is asleep. The camera slowly pans to the cradle only to reveal a rotted corpse of a child in a nightgown. This sets the scenario for the film.
Auntie Roo is obviously an eccentric. She has constant seances in an attempt to communicate with her dead daughter. Of course her psychic is in cahoots with the servants who stage the seances.
It is now time for Aunt Roo's annual Christmas Party where 10 lucky children from the local orphanage are selected to attend an overnight holiday party at Forrest Grange. Christopher and Katy Coombs, a brother and sister are not selected, but stow away in the back of the car. Auntie Roo sees a resemblance in Katy to her dead daughter Katherine...and of course the movie takes off from here. The children see Auntie Roo as the witch in Hansel and Gretel...and Forrest Grange is the Gingerbread House. I won't give away any more of the plot, but the psychological games between the children and Auntie Roo as their terror mounts makes for an extremely entertaining film.
Aside from Shelley Winter's bravura performance, there are also strong contributions from Sir Ralph Richardson as her psychic; Rosemary Crutchley as the director of the orphanage, Mark Lester (of Oliver fame) as Christopher. The art and set direction are marvelous along with excellent camera work and lighting.
This film makes for a different and offbeat Christmas movie or just a plain "fun" movie to watch anytime!
An interesting and fascinating take on the Hansel and Gretel story.
Mrs. Forrest (Shelley Winters) is a rich widow who had been married to a successful British Magician. He died leaving her his fortune and creepy mansion called "Forrest Grange" Their little 7 year old daughter Katherine died after falling off a banister that she was sliding down.
The film opens with Auntie Roo as she is called by the orphans singing a lullabye to what appears to be a child in a cradle. Auntie Roo quietly steals out after we think the child is asleep. The camera slowly pans to the cradle only to reveal a rotted corpse of a child in a nightgown. This sets the scenario for the film.
Auntie Roo is obviously an eccentric. She has constant seances in an attempt to communicate with her dead daughter. Of course her psychic is in cahoots with the servants who stage the seances.
It is now time for Aunt Roo's annual Christmas Party where 10 lucky children from the local orphanage are selected to attend an overnight holiday party at Forrest Grange. Christopher and Katy Coombs, a brother and sister are not selected, but stow away in the back of the car. Auntie Roo sees a resemblance in Katy to her dead daughter Katherine...and of course the movie takes off from here. The children see Auntie Roo as the witch in Hansel and Gretel...and Forrest Grange is the Gingerbread House. I won't give away any more of the plot, but the psychological games between the children and Auntie Roo as their terror mounts makes for an extremely entertaining film.
Aside from Shelley Winter's bravura performance, there are also strong contributions from Sir Ralph Richardson as her psychic; Rosemary Crutchley as the director of the orphanage, Mark Lester (of Oliver fame) as Christopher. The art and set direction are marvelous along with excellent camera work and lighting.
This film makes for a different and offbeat Christmas movie or just a plain "fun" movie to watch anytime!
Lo sapevi?
- QuizAccording to director Curtis Harrington, Hugh Griffith was an alcoholic and his wife accompanied him to the set each day to ensure that he did not drink.
- BlooperSet at Christmastime, there are leaves on all the trees and shrubs. (Production was from April to June, 1971.)
- Citazioni
Katy Coombs: I want this one!
Mrs. Forrest: This bear was better! He had shiny black eyes and his fur was all soft!
Katy Coombs: Fine, then you can keep that bear and I'll keep this one.
- ConnessioniFeatured in Movie Macabre: Who Slew Auntie Roo? (1982)
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