Welcome back for the second-to-last installment of our Review Stew for 2025! This week we have a little bit of holiday horror as we try to find the answer to… Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972).
Title: Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?
Director: Curtis Harrington
Released: February 11, 1972 (United Kingdom)
Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes
Available to stream on: MGM+ and Tubi
Rosie “Auntie Roo” Forrest (Shelley Winters) lives in a mansion all alone. Years ago, she lost her daughter in a freak stair banister accident. When it comes to coping with the loss and grief, you could say Auntie Roo isn’t handling it all that well.
In fact, she sings to the mummified remains of her daughter, which she keeps in her daughter’s old crib, on a nightly basis. To try and stay connected with her daughter, Auntie Roo holds regular seances that are presided over by Mr. Benton (Ralph Richardson).
Well, it just so happens that Mr. Benton is a huckster and he’s got the house staff to go along with his ruse, giving them a cut of his profits. The end result is Auntie Roo having false hope that her daughter is still trying to communicate with her.
Each year at Christmas, Auntie Roo hosts a party for the local orphanage. However, the orphanage selects only ten children to attend. When the staff exclude siblings Chris (Mark Lester) and Katy (Chloe Franks), the pair refuse to accept “no” for an answer. They manage to sneak into the party and are amazed by what they find. Auntie Roo showers the children with attention, gifts, and sweets.
Auntie Roo notices Katy and becomes convinced that her daughter has come back as Katy. She asks Katy to permanently stay with her.
Chris raises an eyebrow at this statement and realizes he needs to get them both out of here.
But can he escape the clutches of Auntie Roo?
At its core, this is a Hansel and Gretel retelling.
Well, at least that is what it wants to be. For whatever it is worth, we never have proof or confirmation that Auntie Roo ever ate any children, let alone killed them.
There are also multiple subplots that are abandoned as soon as they’re mentioned. While they aren’t necessarily distracting, they do their job and keep you guessing where things are heading.
Despite having elements of both a horror film and a thriller, there was almost a reluctance to commit to either genre. Unfortunately, this results in it being rather tame on both fronts.
As for the performances, Shelley Winters is a bit reserved but still turns in a fine performance. Everyone else plays their part well. There’s no real memorable performances but nobody is stinking up the joint either.
Would I tell you to drop everything to run and watch Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)?
Not necessarily, no.
But it was still entertaining and is definitely worthy of at least one viewing.
So, have you seen Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)?
If you have, reach out to me on Bluesky or leave a comment below and tell me what you thought of it!
As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to see what else I’ve been watching lately.
Looking ahead to 2026, get ready for Disc Dive where I’ll be reviewing a film from my physical collection every Monday!