''The Roost'' is a 2005 American
horror film written and directed by
Ti West
Timon C. West (born October 5, 1980) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer, and occasional actor, best known for his work in horror films. He directed the horror films ''The Roost'' (2005), '' The House of ...
.
Plot
On television show Frightmare Theatre, the Horror Host welcomes viewers and introduces them to the film they are about to see, ''The Roost''.
Four friends – Trevor, Allison, Brian, and Elliot – are traveling to go to a wedding. They are frightened by a bat flying into the windshield and crash the car in a ditch, and are unable to get it started again. With no other ideas, the four go to look for a nearby house to call for help, not realizing the older couple within the nearest house have been killed by an unseen force. While looking for help, the friends are attacked by a swarm of bats. A police officer who comes to investigate the house is attacked by bats as well, causing him to fall off a ledge to his death. However, the bats' attack causes the dead police officer to reanimate and attack the friends, who are forced to imprison him and then kill him.
One by one, each of the friends is attacked by the reanimated corpses of those killed by bats, leaving only Allison and Elliot alive. They realize their situation is hopeless and accept their fate. However, back on the TV program, the Horror Host expresses displeasure at this ending, and rewinds the film to see the film's "alternate", more exciting ending, in which Allison is killed by the bats and Elliot flees the house in the police officer's car. He stops at a bridge, asking a tow truck driver for help. The driver is attacked and killed by another swarm of bats, and Elliot is attacked by a reanimated Allison.
The Horror Host warns viewers that the show is over and his master is home, telling them to leave. The "viewer" holding the camera is attacked by a demonic dog, ending the film.
Cast
*
Tom Noonan
Tom Noonan (born April 12, 1951) is an American actor, director, and screenwriter, best known for his roles as Francis Dolarhyde in '' Manhunter'' (1986), Frankenstein's Monster in ''The Monster Squad'' (1987), Cain in '' RoboCop 2'' (1990), T ...
as Horror Host
*
Karl Jacob
Karl Jacob (born January 20, 1979) is an American actor and filmmaker known for writing and directing the feature films ''Pollywogs'' and '' Cold November'', as well as producing the Onur Tukel film ''Applesauce''.
Personal life
Karl Jacob was ...
as Trevor
* Vanessa Horneff as Allison
*
Sean Reid
Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...
as Brian
*
Wil Horneff
William Samuel "Wil" Horneff (born June 12, 1979) is an American former child actor and martial artist who won two Young Artist Awards from three nominations. After leaving his career as an actor, Horneff opened Training Grounds Jiu-Jitsu & MMA ...
as Elliot
* Barbara Wilhide as May
* Richard Little as Elvin
* John Speredakos as Officer Mitchell
*
Larry Fessenden
Laurence T. Fessenden (born March 23, 1963) is an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer. He is the founder of the New York based independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix. His writer/director credits inclu ...
as Tow Truck Driver
Release
Home media
The film was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
by Showtime and
Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, and originally Paramount Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global.
The division oversees PPC's home entertainme ...
on October 3, 2006.
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 50% based on , with a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
rating of 5.9/10.
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at ...
from ''
Empire Magazine'' gave it 3/4 stars, calling it "a creepy vampire variant".
Jeannette Catsoulis from ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' gave the film a mixed review, writing, "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."
Robert Koehler from ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, "''The Roost'' celebrates and restores the 1970s B-horror pic with zero gloss and terrific, rough-hewn craft."
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roost, The
2005 films
2005 horror films
American supernatural horror films
Films about bats
Films directed by Ti West
Films shot in Delaware
Glass Eye Pix films
American haunted house films
Supernatural slasher films
2005 directorial debut films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films