Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)

          An attempt at translating a classic fairy tale into a (somewhat) modern horror picture, the US/UK coproduction Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? falls considerably short of its ambitions, thanks in part to flat cinematography that robs the piece of necessary atmosphere but thanks mostly to an embarrassing star turn by Shelley Winters. With her bulging eyes, flailing movements, and shrill vocalizations, Winters exudes cartoonishness, and not in a good way. There’s no question an oversized performance might have been suitable, given that Winters’s role is a riff on the witch from the fable of Hansel and Gretel, but even an oversized performance requires discipline and vision to manifest coherently. Instead, Winters delivers such amateurish work that it seems she’s doing a blocking run-through rather than presenting a final rendering. Presumably much blame for this fatal flaw gets shared by director Curtis Harrington, whose approach to horror was never distinguished by good taste. One imagines he was after a degree of camp here, as with his preceding Winters collaboration, What’s the Matter With Helen? (1971), but it all just seems so obvious and tacky.
          Set between World Wars in England, the picture concerns Rosie Forrest (Winters), an American former showgirl who is so insane that she keeps the rotting corpse of her dead daughter in the upstairs nursery of her mansion. Every Christmas, Rosie—who also goes by the nickname “Auntie Roo”—opens her home to a group of local orphans, so the movie also introduces viewers to siblings Christopher (Mark Lester) and Katy (Chloe Franks). Through convoluted circumstances, the siblings end up convinced that “Auntie Roo” plans to cook and eat them, as per the Hansel and Gretel story that Christopher recites to Katy one night. Half the picture depicts how the kids develop this belief, and the other half dramatizes various escape attempts once they’re trapped in the mansion with Auntie Roo. Incidental characters adding little to the story include an unscrupulous butler (Michael Gothard) and a drunken medium (Ralph Richardson).
          As penned by a gaggle of writers including Hammer Films regular Jimmy Sangster, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?—released in the U.S. with the slightly abbreviated title Who Slew Auntie Roo?—is colorful but uninvolving, despite the mighty efforts of composer Kenneth V. Jones to add suspense. The appalling nature of Winters’s performance is but one of many shortcomings. While the sets are relatively lavish, shooting the whole picture on soundstages with harsh high-key lighting makes everything feel fake and unthreatening. Lester’s work in the second lead is perfunctory, revealing just how much skill director Carol Reed employed to make Lester seem vigorous in Oliver! (1968). And the logistics of the film’s second half are ridiculous—every would-be suspenseful sequence is predicated on someone doing something idiotic, such as overlooking an obvious warning or, on repeated occasions, rushing into danger to retrieve a teddy bear. The movie is quite dull until the final minutes, when the plot turns perverse by mirroring the gruesome conclusion of the Hansel and Gretel story.

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?: FUNKY

Redneck (1973)

          Some Eurotrash thrillers of a certain vintage have power almost despite themselves, simply because the connotations of the stories are so disturbing. Such is the case with Redneck, a coproduction of British and Italian companies starring an American, a Brit, and an Italian. On the surface, Redneck is a straightforward crime picture about a child becoming a captive when crooks steal his mother’s car during a getaway. Yet the story eventually grows to include creepy implications about the boy modeling after his captors. Director Silvio Narizzano and his collaborators deserve some kind of credit—or blame—for heading down such a dark path. However, because Redneck is all over the place tonally, and because top-billed star Telly Savalas gives a ridiculous performance, it’s hard to describe Narizzzano’s storytelling as disciplined. More like exactly the opposite. Nonetheless, there’s some interestingly weird stuff in here, alongside stuff that’s weird for no real purpose. As such, it’s likely the only folks who will consider Redneck essential viewing are those who relish off-the-rails filmmaking and unhinged acting.
          The picture opens with a fairly exciting scene during which Memphis (Savalas) and Mosquito (Franco Nero) rob a store. Memphis kills a man during the crime, which shocks Mosquito, who didn’t sign up for homicide. A wild getaway ensues, with the crooks stealing various cars and causing wrecks throughout narrow European streets. Eventually, the crooks realize they have a stowaway, 13-year-old Lennox (Mark Lester). Thereafter, the plot makes very little sense, because it’s not clear whether the crooks want to hold the kid for ransom or simply fear what incriminating information he might provide if released. It’s not as if Memphis has any compunctions against killing innocent bystanders, since he offs another kid (and a dog) over the course of his journey. Mosquito tries to keep Lennox safe even as Memphis becomes more and more deranged, and Lennox vacillates between idolizing the humane Mosquito and worshiping the maniacal Memphis.
          Like so many hopelessly contrived genre pictures, Rednecks throws characters together believably, then loses credibility by failing to explain why they stay together; clearly, the filmmakers reached for some sort of male-bonding intensity that remained forever beyond their grasp. In one sequence, for instance, Mosquito stands naked next to Lennox while shaving, prompting Lennox, a few moments later, to examine his genitals in comparison to his grown-up buddy’s. Anyway, Savalas’ performance is quite a spectacle, and not in a good way. He cries, giggles, rhymes, screams, and sings, sometimes decorating his lines with an annoying approximation of African-American street jive. The operative word is “self-indulgent.” Adventurous viewers may find Redneck’s extremes amusing. Others will find them tiresome and unpleasant, though Redneck is rarely boring.

Redneck: FUNKY