A movie with bats in its belfry, "The Roost" celebrates and restores the 1970s B-horror pic with zero gloss and terrific, rough-hewn craft. Imagining what happens when a group of young people en route to a friend's wedding get sidetracked at a farm taken over by vampire bats, debuting helmer Ti West taps into the realist-horror spirit of mentor and exec producer Larry Fessenden, and makes a scarier pic than any by his master... Even the inevitable process of characters being picked off one by one never feels tedious thanks to smart breaks in the action --though one of them (a TV time-out) stops the movie cold.
Since the bat victims pop back to life as zombies, survivors are in a real mess. As a sly joke, Fessenden emerges at the end as a tow-truck driver who turns into bat food. A double-dose of shock effects at the close is excessive and easily trimmed.
West takes advantage of his low budget every step of the way, including a cast of mostly unknowns who never feel like they're recycling old horror chestnuts, and whose unfamiliarity only turns the suspense screws tighter.
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http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117927 ... =1&s=h&p=0 ]
Though the premise is rough, and the acting rougher - most members of the cast improve enormously as soon as gore is substituted for dialogue - "The Roost" proceeds with such youthful enthusiasm that its rawness is more charming than annoying. (Less appealing are the television-friendly breaks that halt the action at crucial moments.) Creatively shot and framed by the cinematographer Eric Robbins, who constructs gorgeously lighted centerpieces surrounded by strips of menacing black, the movie almost overcomes its low budget and threadbare plot. Almost.
[ NYT ]
The great thing about early John Carpenter films is their purposeful, deliberate intention of setting up and paying off genuinely scary moments. Ti West’s The Roost embraces that spirit, eschewing extensive character and plot development in favor of delivering a series of scary set pieces. West, a recent film school graduate embarking on his first feature, shows an uncanny knack for camera placement, eerie and evocative lighting, and timing. In much the same way the good comedian knows how to time out a joke, West understands the nature of fright.
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Filmcritic ]
