The Roost | Rotten Tomatoes

The Roost

2005

1 hr. 20 min.

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

List

52%

21 Reviews

Tomatometer

38%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Traveling to a wedding on Halloween, Trevor (Karl Jacob), Allison (Vanessa Horneff), Brian (Sean Reid) and Elliot (Wil Horneff) are four friends lucky to be alive after crashing their car. Stranded in the Pennsylvania countryside, the foursome set off in search of help -- only to discover that making it to the wedding on time is the least of their problems. Stumbling to a nearby farm, the friends have no way to prepare for the roost of lurking vampire bats in the barn and zombies in the house.

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Audience Member

On a trip to a wedding, three dudes and one chick get their car "stuck on a big rock" from swerving on the highway. Not really sure why. They walk to the only house around. The house seems empty, they seem totally helpless as to what to do next, they wind up spending hours there even though they hate it there. A police officer happens by, and he iis the first victim. Though they talk about driving the police car the heck out of there many times, it takes a while for them to make any moves due to fear, and then its too late! This movie is written, produced and directed by Ti West raises flags as it was done all by the same person with a very small budget. Some scenes could have had a more exciting climax, but the action was "replaced" by shakey cam and weird shots of the sky. Some scenes could have been more exciting if the actors didn't all seem zoned out and bitchy, like they were coming down off of valium, for almost the whole movie. The acting reminded me a little of mumblecore but in the worst way possible. The Roost is obiously an homage to many different genres of vintage horror. It has a total Night Of The Living Dead feel, if the hero was like not there at all for some reason. There is an intro and some black and white footage, the best part of the movie is Tom Noonan pulling some kind of Egor/Cryptkeeper act with his theatre accent. There are some references to grindhouse as the footage stops and starts with film sound effects, often rescuing us from some drawn out scene where we're supposed to feel tension, but mostly feel stressed by the lack of action on the part of the actors. The grainy film quality employed by most of the movie serve the animated bats well. The baddies are bats and bat-zombies. They eventually see bats chase someone out a window and then all land on him to prsumably bite him. The movie had a good concept, and ambitiously takes on new paranormal villians of its own invention. It wasn't unpleasant to watch, if you like horror in general. I was only mildly dissapointed. I'm glad I saw it. Keep up the good work Ti! Loved Sacrament! J Doll

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Ti West's first feature length horror flick is super cheap but uses its resources successfully into a similar yet different take on genre staples. I liked Tom Noonan's horror host and the score was memorable.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

BORING, awkward, scattered...poorly written and shot in black in white. They attempt to make it look like an OLD film but failed miserably

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

william s

70's throwback first run at dusk before the main feature B drive-in movie.Tries to get a little too cute but does bring back fond memories.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

darin c

Tragically bad and boring. Nothing much happens for most of the film except the victims huddling in an extremely badly-lit barn. Bad acting. This sux.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

sanal r

The movie had a few tense moments in the beginning that quite quickly deteriorates into something that seems to be ambitious but in reality is under-produced.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Ti West

Director

Tom Noonan

The Horror Host

Wil Horneff

Actor

Karl Jacob

Trevor

Vanessa Horneff

Allison

Sean Reid

Brian

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Empire Magazine

Rated: 3/5

Apr 1, 2006

Full Review

Dallas Morning News

Rated: C+

Oct 29, 2005

Full Review

Joshua Land

Village Voice

The director makes the most of the tense slow stretches, with the camera occasionally drifting off in search of action while characters wait in dreadful silence.

Oct 27, 2005

Full Review

Patrick Cavanaugh

The Wolfman Cometh

This tonal throwback and reinvention of vampire mythology feels like an entertaining and extended episode of Tales from the Crypt.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 24, 2023

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Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

If this mediocre bore fest is the best West can offer, then I'm sure the rest of his career will be filled with mediocre quasi-horror...

Apr 29, 2009

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Film Threat

Rated: 3.5/5

Dec 6, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

Traveling to a wedding on Halloween, Trevor (Karl Jacob), Allison (Vanessa Horneff), Brian (Sean Reid) and Elliot (Wil Horneff) are four friends lucky to be alive after crashing their car. Stranded in the Pennsylvania countryside, the foursome set off in search of help -- only to discover that making it to the wedding on time is the least of their problems. Stumbling to a nearby farm, the friends have no way to prepare for the roost of lurking vampire bats in the barn and zombies in the house.

Director: Ti West
Executive Producer: Larry Fessenden
Screenwriter: Ti West
Production Co: Glass Eye Pix, Susie Q Productions [us]
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 1, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.3K