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Four
friends are on their way to a wedding when their
car gets stuck on the middle of a dark road. They go
to look for help but instead they soon find themselves
trapped inside a big barn with a bunch of flesh-eating
bats. What's even worse is that once you've been bitten
by a bat, you turn into a rabid zombie.
The Roost is like a wholegrain muffin, it doesn't really
taste that good but you can't resist taking another bite
simply because it looks so delicious. Not making any
sense? Well let me start from the beginning. The Roost
is an intentionally slow-paced movie with a nonsense
plot and a low budget - something which doesn't prevent
Ti West from giving us a great visual experience. The
movie was supposed to be a throwback to 70's B-horror
flicks, and it succeeds, but perhaps a little too well.
The story makes no sense at all and it never even
bothers trying to explain what's going on or why it
is happening. I mean, the movie opens with an old man
walking into his barn, only to get attacked by killer
bats. Now, this old couple has probably lived in their
house for several years so you'd think that they would've
noticed when the barn started filling up with zombified
bats. And also, why do people turn into zombies after
getting bit by the bats? It was quite obvious that
all of these plot holes were intentional, but they're
more frustrating than entertaining. I mean, who would
want to make an intentionally bad movie?
Since we're still on the subject, I might as well give
you a brief summary of what this movie was about. First
we're introduced to Tom Noonan who plays a host for
a cheap late night TV-show. He basically then just
introduces the main movie to us, which made it feel
like the late night TV-show idea was just padding.
Anyway, the real movie begins and four friends are on
their way to a wedding and decide to take
a shortcut - which is always a bad idea in horror
movies. When their car gets stuck in the middle
of nowhere, they decide to check out the creepy old
barn for unknown reasons, unaware of the terror that
awaits them inside.
While the acting is above average, I can honestly say
that had it not been for Ti West's clever directing
and the grainy picture accompanied with the very
suitable soundtrack, The Roost would have been a
complete disaster. Every time things started to get
suspenseful, the movie cut to a different scene
which wasn't suspenseful at all. The pacing was just
horrible and even though that was intentional (was
every negative remark I have on this movie intentional?),
you couldn't help but to flirt with the thought of
pushing the fast forward button.
Ultimately I wouldn't consider The Roost a good movie.
It's kind of inventive I guess and I liked the fact
that it dared to go all the way with the late 70's
throwback concept - just for that I would say that
this movie might be worth checking out. However, the
plot is ridiculous and nothing in this movie made
sense at all so it's not exactly a big loss if you
happen to miss this one.
Some gore here and there with a gory face, a slashed
neck and an impalement.
I loved the screeching strings and the odd sound effects.
This was definitely one of the movies strengths.
It's not that I didn't get the movie, I just didn't
think that it was very good. The Roost is probably a
hate it or love it movie in that way. I know some of
you will love this throwback to cheesy 70's flicks,
but I don't understand why someone would want to make
an intentionally bad movie, doesn't that just mean
that you're not competent enough to make a good one?
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