The Roost is a tense and original horror film that centers around a group of teens "trapped" on a creepy farm at night. This may sound like the plot line to a Scooby Doo cartoon, but thanks to clever cinematography by Eric Robbins and an incredible score by Jeff Grace, who, like David Kristian (Nacho Cerda's The Abandoned) is rescuing us from standard horror soundtracks, Ti West succeeds in creating a truly chilling horror film.
Even if I did enjoy the film's over-all atmosphere, I found the horror host segments unnecessary and distracting, as if they had been tacked on to give the film longer running time. At 80 minutes, it's already very short, and the lack of character development makes it feel as if the film was originally intended as a short. The acting leaves a lot to be desired, but no one in this low budget debut feature was as bad as Paris Hilton in the mega budget and not in the least scary House of Wax.
I really want to love this movie, but something is missing for it to be a great horror film. The Roost is still an impressive first feature, and it will be interesting to see what Ti West has to offer in the future.
Even if I did enjoy the film's over-all atmosphere, I found the horror host segments unnecessary and distracting, as if they had been tacked on to give the film longer running time. At 80 minutes, it's already very short, and the lack of character development makes it feel as if the film was originally intended as a short. The acting leaves a lot to be desired, but no one in this low budget debut feature was as bad as Paris Hilton in the mega budget and not in the least scary House of Wax.
I really want to love this movie, but something is missing for it to be a great horror film. The Roost is still an impressive first feature, and it will be interesting to see what Ti West has to offer in the future.