Once the story begins, it starts off with a very common introduction. Four young friends, traveling in a car cross-county to attend a wedding, get lost while taking a short-cut. Suddenly, something hits the windshield and the car is forced off the road. The car gets stuck on a rock so they decide to travel to a nearby farmhouse for help. (I can't even begin to count how many movies begin with this same scenario.) When the characters reach the farmhouse, they find it abandoned and eventually discover that it's overrun by killer bats. To make matters worse, the victims of the bats transform into flesh-eating zombies.

For whatever reason, many reputable horror sources ranted and raved about this film. And I suppose for such a low-budget film, my expectations shouldn't have been so high. But even with the low budget, I feel like so much more could have been done with this film. The movie is very formalistic, and while I understand it was intended to be a "throwback" to the classic horror movie age, some originality would have been nice to see. Unlike films such as Scream, which took the old "hack-and-slash" movie formula and made an entertaining parody of the genre, The Roost is nothing more than a lethargic regurgitation of hundreds of other horror films before it. In that sense, the movie was almost too serious for its own good, particularly coming off the campy "Frightmare Theatre" introduction.

The acting, while not terrible, was rather flat. Most of the lines were delivered in little more than a monotone. Moreover, the actors' reactions to the extraordinary events around them was dull and unconvincing.

Perhaps the only redeeming quality of the film was the music score by Jeff Grace. The music set the stage for the nostalgic-driven film. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by an unoriginal and unimaginative script.

People with a strong phobia of bats and a desire to reminisce about "the golden age" of horror movies may enjoy this film. Others will find it a needless waste of time.