gavin6942 A demented widow (Shelley Winters) lures unsuspecting children into her mansion in a bizarre "Hansel and Gretel" twist.I am not a big fan of Shelley Winters. Frankly, I don't really understand how she became anybody. But I do love AIP, and I absolutely adore both Jimmy Sangster and Curtis Harrington (whose "Night Tide" is a true horror gem). These gentlemen have brought the Hammer touch to AIP, making this film both British (in a good way), but still that same cult AIP style we love.And even better is the "Hansel and Gretel" idea. Some legends and fairy tales have been done to death, but this one has not. And furthermore, it puts children in the danger zone -- the scene of this film with the guillotine had me on the edge of my seat wondering if they had the guts to go all the way.

Lee Eisenberg Curtis Harrington had just directed Shelley Winters in the sinister "What's the Matter with Helen?", and so he brought her back for the equally sinister "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?". Unlike the first movie, this one doesn't look at moral gray areas. Instead it goes straight for the jugular, riffing on Hansel and Gretel with Winters in the role of the witch (who in this case is simply a disturbed woman keeping her late daughter's skeleton preserved). It's a pretty fun movie, corny though it is. Easily better than the other movie in which Winters starred that year (the obnoxious "Poseidon Adventure").So yes, can you hear your daughter's voice?

Syl I love Shelley Winters in this film as the demented Auntie Roo, the widow of a British magician. In this film, she plays a haunted troubled woman whose daughter died in a terrible accident. She wants to be a mother again and finds herself drawn to a girl who resembles her own late daughter. There are lot of interesting scenes and Shelley Winters is a scream in this film with her part. You feel sorry for her but despise what she's doing to Katy and Christopher, young British orphans, who end up being Hansel and Gretel in this story. The ending was kind of disturbing and the kids reminded me more of the boy in the Omen film at times. It's a first rate cast with Shelley Winters, Ralph Richardson, Judy Cornwell, and Marianne Stone just to name a few well known British actors in the cast. I would like to see it again especially since I missed the beginning portion of it. I found it terribly entertaining even a good Halloween movie to show.

Woodyanders Mischievous Christopher (the terrific Mark Lester of "Oliver!" and "Eyewitness" fame) and his sweet little sister Katy (adorable blonde sprite Chloe Franks, who played the daughters of Christopher Lee in "The House That Dripped Blood" and Joan Collins in "Tales from the Crypt") are a couple of orphans living in Great Britian in the 1920's. Christopher convinces Katy that loopy recluse Rosie "Auntie Roo" Forrest (Shelley Winters chewing the scenery with her trademark four-sheets-to-the-wind hambone panache), a former music hall singer who once a year invites a bunch of kids to her huge, crumbling mansion for Christmas diner, is really a witch who plans to fatten Katy up and eat her. Director Curtis Harrington, adapting a fiendishly clever script co-written by veteran Hammer horror film scribe Jimmy ("The Curse of Frankenstein," "The Horror of Dracula") Sangster, whips up a delightfully twisted and darkly amusing Gothic black comedy version of "Hansel and Gretel." The first-rate cast have a ball with their juicy parts: Ralph Richardson as an eccentric charlatan medium, Michael Gothard (the crazed killer in "Scream and Scream Again") as a mean butler, Lionel Jeffries as a friendly, hearty police inspector, Hugh Griffiths as a jolly butcher, and Marianne Stone as a strict orphanage supervisor. Desmond Dickinson's polished cinematography, Kenneth J. Jones' spooky orchestral score, and the marvelously macabre conclusion are all solid and satisfying as well. Good, ghoulish fun.