Now the 1960s were a somewhat fallow period for festive frights. Now there was an alien invasion flick set around New Years in the shape of 1962’s The Day Mars Invaded Earth, which features doppelgangers from the red planet impersonating local folks. But despite being a big favourite of legendary director Joe Dante - and more about him behind a future door - this is more of a kid-friendly science fiction film than an exercise in end-of-year intergalactic horror.
Likewise 1964 brought us a truly horrific festive flick - horrifically bad that is! For on November 21st that year, the rightly infamous Christmas turkey Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. And while this rather bizarre movie has its fans for being allegedly so bad it’s good, it’s really not the sort of holiday horror we are looking for here! So then, other than these brace of juvenile scifi features, it was all quiet on the festive horror front for the rest of the decade. However Christmas horror would be back, bigger and better in the 1970s.
Now, some lists of festive chillers include the 1971 movie Wake in Fright AKA Outback. This film, now recognised as a landmark movie in Australian New Wave cinema, tells the tale of a young teacher travelling home for the Christmas holidays. However due to travel troubles he ends up stranded in a tiny town called Bundanyabba, and ends up sucked into the local folks’ drunken, debauched and violent lifestyle. Now Wake in Fright is an often difficult watch, it is bleak and ugly, and very much explores the dark side of human society. And fair warning if you are thinking of watching it, it does feature real life animal cruelty in an extensive sequence where real kangaroos are hunted and killed. Yes, it is about as far as you can get from festive fun! But as brutal as it is, it isn’t truly a horror movie, and so only warrants an honourable mention here.
However 1971 also brought us another movie that perfectly ticks the Yuletide and horror boxes - the wonderfully named Whoever Slew Auntie Roo. This festive chiller was directed by Curtis Harrington who got his start working with Roger Corman back in the 1960s and would go on to direct several feature films plus helm numerous episodes of well-loved TV shows such as Dynasty, Wonder Woman, The Twilight Zone and Charlie's Angels.
Now Whoever Slew Auntie Roo was a UK/US co-production which saw America’s AIP join forces with the British outfit Hemdale to shoot this movie at Shepperton Studios. The film starred screen legend Shelley Winters who actually requested Curtis Harrington to direct. Also starring was the star of Oliver! Mark Lester and another famous child star Chloe Franks, who in the same year would star alongside Christopher Lee in the amicus anthology horror The House That Dripped Blood. Also appearing was a bevy of the best of British talent - Sir Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jefferies, Michael Gothard and Hugh Griffith. So then a cut above the usual low budget AIP shockers!
So then what is the plot? Well, Shelley Winters plays a very rich, but somewhat eccentric, lady, Rosie Forrest, who every year becomes the genial Auntie Roo and choses ten children from the local orphanage to come spend Christmas in her lavish old mansion house. Now obviously this is a huge treat and all the children at the home want to be chosen, but when young Christopher and his sister Katie (played by Mark Lester and Chloe Franks) don’t make the cut, Christopher contrives to effectively stowaway, and sneak him and his little sister into the rich Auntie Roo’s Christmas festivities.
Now then I will leave the plot summary there, but suffice to say, nearly everyone gets something very unexpected this particular Christmas…
Apparently director Curtis Harrington was not at all impressed with the script he was given, and ended up reworking it heavily. One major change was setting the action in the 1920s as he really thought a Victorian/Edwardian vibe would suit the material. But I must say, he was bang on the money there, for the vintage setting of the tale instantly recalls classic ghost stories, gothic chillers and a host of festive fare.
Furthermore he did a fantastic job reworking the plot and script, weaving a dark chiller that blends psychological horror and macabre mystery into a superbly festive fright flick, steeped in the imagery of an old fashioned Christmas. It’s a story with many twists and turns, featuring various nefarious secrets, assorted wicked plots and more than a few macabre surprises. Harrington also very subtly worked in an echo of a well-known fairy tale - one of the older darker ones - which further enhances both its horror and festive credentials.
On its release, despite hitting theatres in time for Christmas, the film never quite found its audience. As we will see later in this calendar, there is often a certain resistance to mixing the macabre with merry, despite the long tradition in other artforms of celebrating the dark shadows alongside the bright lights of festive cheer. And hence critics tended to feel it was too macabre and silly to be a “serious drama”, too childish to be frightening, but too disturbing for a family audience. However in fairness, the movie isn’t trying to be any one of those things, and I can’t help thinking that certain commentators on the movie are forgetting how dark and scary the old fairy tales are, and indeed how much audiences love them when they are darker and scarier. And with its blend of childhood fancy, festive fun, and frissons of fright, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo is a dark winter fable perfect for a Christmas night!
And if critics didn't care for this mix of light and dark in festive horror, well, too bad, for the following year, there would be further even darker Yuletide terrors on the big screen.
No comments:
Post a Comment