The Roost (2005)

RATED- R
RUN TIME- 80 MINS
WRITERS- TI WEST
STARRING- TOM NOONAN, KARL JACOB AND VANESSA HORNEFF
DIRECTOR- TI WEST



Synopsis taken from IMDb
Part of a "special" late-night television program...Four friends on their way to a wedding find themselves marooned on a mysterious farm. Creatures of the night awaken and the undead rise, as a night of relentless horror...Begins!




I'm glad that finally I got to see this film! This was one I was looking forward to for a long time. As some of you know I'm a big supporter of Ti West, I think he's got a phenomenal taste for horror and an amazing eye for directing. For those of you who don't know him or aren't familiar with him, he's the director of The House Of The Devil (2009) and more recently The Innkeepers (2011). Both of which are superb movies.

He was also the director of Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009), and a movie called Trigger Man (2007) and The Wicked (2001), both of which I haven't seen yet but plan on getting to soon.

The Roost was ranked #5 out the top 10 horror films in 2005 by Bloody-Disgusting.

One of the awesome things about The Roost is that part of this film was shot in Wilmington Delaware, where I currently live. This made me want to see the movie even more.

The movie starts off profound, with a guest appearance from Tom Noonan playing the host of a low budget, old school horror TV program. He was such a good actor for this role. He looked and acted so awkward and this made him very convincing, this guy can pull off horror roles. Ti West's vision as well as Noonan's performance makes this opening scene my favorite part of the movie. It really had the feel of a local horror TV program. If it were a real show I'd watch regularly.

The movie picks up after The Horror Host (Tom Noonan) introduces it in his eerie but impressive way.

When the official movie starts I instantly liked the grain feeling of the film, making it look old and aged, while maintaining being modern with its characters.

The acting in this movie isn't that good, but it's far from bad, considering how much bad acting their is in horror these days. The characters seem entitled to their roles so I give it the grace of having convicted actors.

This movie had some good humor in it, it was comical in parts to lighten some tension at points. Doing this lightens the mood of the film, showing you it's a fun movie as well as a throwback to 80's horror. I'd even say the films grain filter makes the film look like a 70's flick.

I was surprised how good the effects were in this film, it's clearly low budget, but they stretch the budget well. The gore was very much present and so were the scares.

The zombies in the film were exactly what I expected, old school and a reminder of old zombie flicks. I liked the way they looked and acted.

The bats in this movie were also menacing and fierce, they creeped me out. I am not a personal fan of bats, though however, I am obsessed with Batman. The bats in this movie were violent and malevolent, if they were around my house I'd hit the road...

In the conclusion of this movie I was satisfied but I wasn't compelled like I was with The House Of The Devil and The Innkeepers. I thought this film was very well made and impressive, better than I was ever expecting. But it was far from the best that I've seen Mr. West do and know he's capable of. You can tell this was one of his older films, he's had plenty of time to smooth out the rough edges since then.

THIS FILM GETS 3 OUT OF 4 REAPERS