Review of The Roost (2005) by Bryan G — 14 Mar 2010

The Roost marked writer/director Ti West's feature length directorial debut. Unlike his follow-up film Trigger Man and it's real life terrors, The Roost deals with a more supernatural force for its central characters to clash with. Taking the standard "stranded in the middle of nowhere" horror motif West crafts a surprisingly thrilling film about ravenous vampire bats and a couple flesh eating zombies as well. Maybe I'm a little biased since vampires and zombies are my favorite movie monsters, but I enjoyed what The Roost had to offer.

Ti West is clearly a huge fan of old school horror films, which his awesome 2009 The House of the Devil (my pick for the best horror film of 2009) clearly showcases. He must have grown up on creature-feature shows, and makes a loving tribute to them by having The Roost open up as if it were one of these television programs. Horror icon Tom Noonan plays the host, who introduces and occasionally interrupts the film to give his insights. A nice little touch to this film.

Aside from the obvious pluses of having both vampire and zombie elements to the film, The Roost succeeds because it manages to take its limited budget and make that work in its favor. Horror has become big business lately, and with that a lot of horror films have become over budgeted and overblown. The Roost on the other hand has a small budget, and relies on practical scares. West is a master of turning things like a dimly lit location, or strange noises in the distance into real scares. Heck, he is even good with cheap scares like someone or something jumping from off camera.

The Roost isn't a horror film that will redefine horror, but it still stands as one of the more effective horror films of the decade. While his film Trigger Man offered more realistic scares, I find that I'm a bigger fan of West's traditional horror films like The House of the Devil and The Roost. With only a handful of films in his roster, Ti West has more than proven to me that he is someone to keep an eye on in the future. A future that I hope brings more fantastic horror films.