86 - The Roost

    A group of people on their way to a wedding wind up running off the road in a rural area.  They hide out in a barn while waiting for help.  There are a bunch of bats that turn victims into zombies.
    The first feature made by Ti West.  I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I’m a little disappointed.  It’s low budget, but I can’t figure out how low the budget actually was.  Limited locations, small cast… in this case, I would rely on a stronger script to carry the project, but it came out as one of the b-movies of a drive-in double feature.  To be fair, it’s not terrible.  But it’s unbalanced.  It moves slowly, there isn’t enough story to drive it along.
    Now that I’ve found an interview, it was made for about $50,000, and West wrote the script in three days.  Yeah, it’s not bad for that kind of a background.  I’d be very interested in what he could have done if he spent some time polishing the script.
    I’ve found that Ti West is only about a month older than me.  I’m impressed with how quickly he’s managed to establish himself.  I identify with his enthusiasm, and I think I’m more forgiving of his learning curve.  I still need to rewatch House of the Devil, but he’s really developed a lot over time.
    This movie… it’s a curiosity.  I didn’t find it as tense as some people have, but I think the direction showed a lot of promise.