The Roost (2005)

Touches You

Boring

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

I am a sucker for zombies, but this one definitely needed more.The whole film took place on a deserted road and in a barn. A roost of bats turned people into zombies. That's it. No explanations. Just people getting turned into zombies.This could have been a 10 minute YouTube video and it might have been interesting, but stretched to 80 minutes, it just didn't have anything to recommend it.The music was good, and it did have a creepy atmosphere, but like most low budget productions, the lighting was terrible.Try something else.

This movie is nothing short of absolute garbage. The corny old style horror host leads us into a movie that is even worse. After about 30 minutes of trying to develop a nonexistent plot and one dimensional characters we finally get to the bats. At this point we find that the bats' bite turns people into some kind of zombie vampire like things (which apparently look just like normal people). Okay, this movie might still have a chance, zombies are cool right? Well, they might be if we ever saw them again. The rest of the movie consists of the characters babbling, or sitting around, or walking around with some dramatic music only to have nothing happen. Not only is this movie uninteresting, it also isn't scary. The few times something actually does attack it can be seen coming from a mile away and usually ends with no more than a single bite. On top of how horrible the script and acting is the film looks like it was shot with some leftover equipment from the Vietnam era. I can understand if the director wanted to give the movie an older look but, in the end it just ends up looking bad and sounding worse. This movie completely fails to pay homage to the 70's style "B" horror movie to which it is modeled after. If your going to produce a low budget film you should at least try and write a script that can old the attention of an audience. If you want to see a good old style zombie flick just go get yourself a copy of any George Romero movie and pass on "The Roost".

Okay little creeper using the "more is less" approach with quite a wacky premise..four young adults, on their way to a wedding taking a scenic route, meet a dangerous detour when they come across deadly bats(who have formed a colony within the barn of a nearby isolated farmhouse)which turn those they bite into zombies! Character actor Tom Noonan serves as a type of creature feature host for this flick, even interrupting at one point when he found the whimpering(..at the seemingly hopeless situation they face)of brother Elliot(Wil Horneff)and sister Allison(Vanessa Horneff, whose lip sticks out in a pout for most of the duration, as she complains, gripes, moans & groans about this and that..)grotesque. The first victims to encounter an unfortunate demise at the teeth of the bats were the elderly couple who live in the farmhouse and a policeman the group need assistance from in order to reach their car which was wrecked when a bat crashed into their windshield leaving the vehicle's axle locked on a big rock.The film is shot, on digital, entirely in the night which probably makes the bats more effective. I think those killer bats were mostly CGI, but the director has them flapping past the screen and at victims at such a frenzied state, one can barely tell. When you get a good look at the bats on top of a roof window, they aren't as effective..but as a collective swarming around their prey, I think the CGI isn't a detriment. The film really follows the characters as they try to remain out of the path of the bats, but when the zombies pop up out of nowhere that double threat really heightens the suspense. I like the disorienting violin strings as they get under the skin..this is what the director also uses to keep the viewer on edge. Not a bad way to waste about 75 minutes..looks like a little indie horror flick that might be featured within the "8 films to die for.." collection(whether or not that's a compliment or insult depends on the mixed response those film so often receive). The gore, if you're wondering, comes from the zombie flesh ripping and blood spatter.

Today, we get a lot of movies that are supposed to be throwbacks to the 70's and 80's era of horror and exploitation. Usually, they get this wrong ("Malevolence", "Satan's Playground", "The Hazing", etc.), but sometimes, a movie gets it right. Fortunately, "The Roost" gets it right.Opening with the type of horror movie host that you saw in the old days, "Roost" is actually a movie-within-a movie. The actually movie is nothing original: A group of friends car breaks down, they get stranded, and run into a deadly force (here it's bats that turn victims into zombie-like killers) While the premise and movie in a way is nothing that original, it works because of how it is all done. There is gore, but it's not a gore fest, as the movie focuses more on atmosphere and suspense (which fails on a few occasions) than gory slapstick gags and homages that can grow tiresome. Also effective is the way director sets up several scenes, including a sequence where a cop is attacked by bats. Adding to it is a wonderfully creepy screeching violin score, and some effective (but never over used) CGI effects involving the bats."The Roost" won't change the face of horror. It's not too original and the acting is mediocre at best. However, it's still a blast, and will be a treat to those who grew up going to see Grindhouse movies or who watched creaky, faded videos of horror movies.