The Roost

Noonan is talented - check out his triple duty as the writer, director and star of 1994's WHAT HAPPENED WAS..., which features one of the most believable first kisses in movie history - so what in the world is he doing here? Either lending his star power to a needy friend, I suppose, or simply taking the money and running.

THE ROOST has absolutely nothing to recommend it. The writing, directing, acting, photography, effects, makeup and scares - they're all garbage. Even Noonan's own bit as the retro TV horror host is painfully lame, and the "shock" scenes are just a handful of uninspired shaky-cam attacks by some escapees from a WALKING DEAD convention.

You can - as I did - fast-forward through 90% of this sad excuse for a movie without missing anything, and the other 10% is equally worthy of oblivion.

And, please, can people stop hating on bats? The bat is a docile and remarkable creature without which we'd be up to our eyeballs in mosquitoes, and the vandalism of its habitats is an ignorant crime against nature.

Today, we get a lot of movies that are supposed to be throwbacks to the 70's and 80's era of horror and exploitation. Usually, they get this wrong ("Malevolence", "Satan's Playground", "The Hazing", etc.), but sometimes, a movie gets it right. Fortunately, "The Roost" gets it right.

Opening with the type of horror movie host that you saw in the old days, "Roost" is actually a movie-within-a movie. The actually movie is nothing original: A group of friends car breaks down, they get stranded, and run into a deadly force (here it's bats that turn victims into zombie-like killers) While the premise and movie in a way is nothing that original, it works because of how it is all done. There is gore, but it's not a gore fest, as the movie focuses more on atmosphere and suspense (which fails on a few occasions) than gory slapstick gags and homages that can grow tiresome. Also effective is the way director sets up several scenes, including a sequence where a cop is attacked by bats. Adding to it is a wonderfully creepy screeching violin score, and some effective (but never over used) CGI effects involving the bats.

"The Roost" won't change the face of horror. It's not too original and the acting is mediocre at best. However, it's still a blast, and will be a treat to those who grew up going to see Grindhouse movies or who watched creaky, faded videos of horror movies.

Eeeeeeek...look, I'm a filmmaker too, so I'll try to be constructive...1.) get a better camera man. What's he doing the whole time, scratching his butt? Keep the camera still for Christ's sake! 2.) use more than just a key light to light your "actors" 3.) don't film dialog with the "actors" backs to the camera 3.) bring in your zombies before the 43 minute mark 4.) have at least one other person review your script before you shoot it, multiple drafts can be effective in developing meaningful dialog 5.) pay for better ADR services...if you paid even $1 you got ripped off 6.) give me the name of your agent ... if he can sell this piece of poop, he can sell ANYTHING!

But keep trying...I think you'll nail your next one...as long as you eed tips 1-5.

I found this pretty banal - I watched in it London's cosy ICA cinema 2 - it's an art cinema, but if you get the right crowd (as they recently did for 'Thundercrack!', the atmosphere in this 45-seater is excellent.

However, I had to step past a guy who'd fallen asleep when the movie ended - the build up was excellent at points, but there was no payoff. It was pretty senseless, and although the grain lent it a spooky low budget ambiance, I'm not certain that was the intention.

Acting was reasonable, but the characters were beyond paper-thin. It was seriously hard to care about them at all, yet at the same time I wished them no particularly ill-will. Neither of these is a good sign.

Not recommended - not appalling, but not great by any means.

I am a sucker for zombies, but this one definitely needed more.

The whole film took place on a deserted road and in a barn. A roost of bats turned people into zombies. That's it. No explanations. Just people getting turned into zombies.

This could have been a 10 minute YouTube video and it might have been interesting, but stretched to 80 minutes, it just didn't have anything to recommend it.

The music was good, and it did have a creepy atmosphere, but like most low budget productions, the lighting was terrible.

Try something else.