Ti West's The Roost is a pretty entertaining little B-movie that happened to be picked-up by Showtime to air on their network. It's a simple story, told under the guise of being the featured film on a late night horror show and while there's a lot to like here, probably the biggest weakness is the fact that it just can't make up its mind on what it wants to be. Going from a loving tribute to late night TV, to a creature feature, to a zombie movie, West's script could've used a tad more focus.

Opening with the mock television show, 'Frightmare Theatre!'. West instantly gives his film a great "old school" feel that manages to carry over into the opening credits as the production company logo matches that of 80's indie house Avco-Embassy (who released many a loved horror flick including John Carpenter's The Fog), the animated title card features a flock of bats and Jeff Grace's score sets the mood just right. We can tell right away that West is a fan of this type of movie and it's little things like this that made me, as a longtime horror fanatic myself, smile.

Opting to keep things as elementary as possible, The Roost sets-up as basic a story as it can, as four friends are on a road trip together to attend their friend's wedding. However, they soon find themselves in a ditch when a bat smacks into their windshield and they swerve off the road.

Instead of hanging around the car waiting for help (since it's a quiet country road in the middle of the night), they decide to head-off and see if there's any nearby houses where they can borrow the telephone. At the same time the elderly owners of a nearby farmhouse find themselves attacked and killed when they hear a noise in their barn. It seems that a large group of bats with a taste for human flesh have decided to take up residence (or "Roost" as the title refers to) in the rafters.

Our weary travelers soon arrive at the farm and upon figuring out there's nobody around get into a heap more trouble than they could've ever expected when they decide to explore the property. Not only do they have to try and stay alive amongst various bat attacks, it also seems that when they bite someone said person tends to turn into a zombie. This gives the make-up effects team ample opportunity to show us mangled bodies (the cop who shows-up and gets given a good send off looks particularly cool) and flesh chewing aftermaths.

Despite the aforementioned hitches in West's script, The Roost is a pretty fun time. West wisely decided to keep things as stripped down as he can opting to set-up what consists of a one-line premise and run with it. He keeps his creatures in the shadows; only giving us brief glimpses of them and he slowly winds-up the tension (which is aided greatly by Grace's great music) managing to give the whole thing a creepy vibe. And while things might get a little bit much by the time the movie is over, in the end West's love of the genre shines through. (Chris Hartley, 2/9/07)

Directed By: Ti West.
Written By: Ti West.

Starring: Tom Noonan, Karl Jacob, Vanessa Horneff, Sean Reid.