I saw this at the L.A. Film Fest last night, and boy has my estimation of that fest's taste gone down. Somehow, Larry Fessenden (the exec producer) has gotten a 'star' like name. Beats me, because Wendigo isn't that great a movie either. This can be the only reason this tripe got into the festival.
Anyway - The Roost - was introduced as homage to the early "rent on VHS" low budget horror flicks of the 80's. Great. I'm ready.
What it is - is a boring, tale of four (or so) people that end up at a farm, and then go to the barn for no good reason, and then get attacked by bats. Somehow, I guess these bats can make you a zombie, because occasionally someone acts like a zombie, or doesn't die when they're shot. I think. Also, at one point, there's 'reverse reverb' type sound on a voice in the dark - - so maybe they also make you a ghost.
Now, if the set up for this had been the first 30 minutes, fine. Now they're trapped and they have to get out.
But they don't - it takes a torturous 60-70 minutes. It's essentially a one act movie - on Valium.
But it's not like they're really trapped. The barn door is wide open, and most of the time the only thing that seems like it's outside is the enormous amount of harsh light they're blasting at the Barn to light the scene. Eventually (this could be construed as a spoiler), the two remaining people decide to go out to the police SUV, which is still parked from much earlier in the torture, er movie. Of course, its lights are still on and flashing as they were left before.
The Director proudly mentioned how the movie was shot on film. Kodak would NEVER point to this as an example of what their stocks can look like. Much of the time, it looked like they had pushed the film two or more stops. The grain was beyond ridiculous. Also, FOCUS??? Who cares? Some shots, nay scenes - shots indicates editing, were so out of focus as to be pointless. The Lighting was essentially to get an exposure. There was no art (or semblance of realism) to it. I know budget is low, etc. but it's not an excuse to just flip the switch on 5000 watts of light and call it a day - not when it's supposed to be night.
The soundtrack - an incessant screeching of strings and 'found' type sound, would have worked better if it hadn't been so damn loud. Though the overall volume level at the theater was in the "I'll confess to anything" range, the mix of the movie itself was also not great.
A wrap around as if all of this was a 'creature feature' TV show with guest host Tom Noonan was - so what? At one point, the movie is interrupted by going back to the wrap around. Then, it "rewinds" or "forwards" a bit in the movie. I think it was done to cut through an especially bad scene, so -- Thank you -- good idea. On a cinematic level though - what were they thinking? Funny? Clever? Come on, SCTV did this twenty years ago.
If you want to watch a good bad 80's movie, watch "The Incredible Melting Man" or any other number of movies. If you want to torture yourself with boredom, grating sound, awful lighting, non existent pacing, and ultimately thoughts of - WHY WHY WHY?! -- or if you want to remind yourself of those bad 80's video rentals you shut off after four minutes - then, The Roost may be your bag.
Anyway - The Roost - was introduced as homage to the early "rent on VHS" low budget horror flicks of the 80's. Great. I'm ready.
What it is - is a boring, tale of four (or so) people that end up at a farm, and then go to the barn for no good reason, and then get attacked by bats. Somehow, I guess these bats can make you a zombie, because occasionally someone acts like a zombie, or doesn't die when they're shot. I think. Also, at one point, there's 'reverse reverb' type sound on a voice in the dark - - so maybe they also make you a ghost.
Now, if the set up for this had been the first 30 minutes, fine. Now they're trapped and they have to get out.
But they don't - it takes a torturous 60-70 minutes. It's essentially a one act movie - on Valium.
But it's not like they're really trapped. The barn door is wide open, and most of the time the only thing that seems like it's outside is the enormous amount of harsh light they're blasting at the Barn to light the scene. Eventually (this could be construed as a spoiler), the two remaining people decide to go out to the police SUV, which is still parked from much earlier in the torture, er movie. Of course, its lights are still on and flashing as they were left before.
The Director proudly mentioned how the movie was shot on film. Kodak would NEVER point to this as an example of what their stocks can look like. Much of the time, it looked like they had pushed the film two or more stops. The grain was beyond ridiculous. Also, FOCUS??? Who cares? Some shots, nay scenes - shots indicates editing, were so out of focus as to be pointless. The Lighting was essentially to get an exposure. There was no art (or semblance of realism) to it. I know budget is low, etc. but it's not an excuse to just flip the switch on 5000 watts of light and call it a day - not when it's supposed to be night.
The soundtrack - an incessant screeching of strings and 'found' type sound, would have worked better if it hadn't been so damn loud. Though the overall volume level at the theater was in the "I'll confess to anything" range, the mix of the movie itself was also not great.
A wrap around as if all of this was a 'creature feature' TV show with guest host Tom Noonan was - so what? At one point, the movie is interrupted by going back to the wrap around. Then, it "rewinds" or "forwards" a bit in the movie. I think it was done to cut through an especially bad scene, so -- Thank you -- good idea. On a cinematic level though - what were they thinking? Funny? Clever? Come on, SCTV did this twenty years ago.
If you want to watch a good bad 80's movie, watch "The Incredible Melting Man" or any other number of movies. If you want to torture yourself with boredom, grating sound, awful lighting, non existent pacing, and ultimately thoughts of - WHY WHY WHY?! -- or if you want to remind yourself of those bad 80's video rentals you shut off after four minutes - then, The Roost may be your bag.