It’s All Up With Auntie

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (released in the United States as Who Slew Auntie Roo?) is a 1971 British horror thriller film directed by Curtis Harrington and starring Shelley Winters, Mark Lester, Ralph Richardson, Chloe Franks, Judy Cornwell, Michael Gothard, Hugh Griffith and Lionel Jeffries. Inspired by the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel", the film focuses on a demented American widow (Winters) living in her husband's English manor who becomes obsessed with a young orphan girl who resembles her dead daughter. The film was co-produced by American International Pictures's British branch and Hemdale Film Corporation, and filmed at Shepperton Studios in London. It is considered part of the psycho-biddy subgenre of the 1960's and early 1970's. Director Harrington and star Winters had previously made the psycho-biddy film What's the Matter with Helen? earlier in 1971. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? premiered in the United States before being released in Britain on 11 February 1972. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics.