Citadel (2012)

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Tommy (Aneurin Barnard) is helpless as his pregnant wife (Amy Shiels) is attacked by a gang of hoodlums. This isn't any ordinary gang, but one that apparently kidnaps children and can smell fear, but "can't see you." He believes they are after his child and is forced to face his fears and the killer children in the "Citadel" an abandoned apartment high rise. He is aided by a priest (James Cosmo) and a blind boy named Danny (Jake Wilson).At some point in time I had to question if the creatures were real or Tommy's imagination. In one scene they break out a car window, then as they drive to another location, it is fixed. So I had to question if this was a plot point meaning the children were imaginary or just a sloppy production.The film is all about Tommy's fear and did little to frighten me. It is a film you can take a nap in the middle of it, wake up and know what is going on. The actors did a fine job, I just found the film rather slow.Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

I wasn't sure how to rate this movie. I really liked the acting of Aneurin Barnard as the young father of a baby girl whose wife was violated by a bunch of kids and died as a result. His agoraphobia and fear that those kids might hurt him or his daughter looked very convincing to me. However once those evil kids got hold of his daughter there is an attempt to put some more action in the movie. The back story of the building (the citadel) and its inhabitants (the evil kids), it's worked out rather poorly. The inclusion of the blind boy was pretty good but the role of the priest was rather unfitting. I don't mind movies with a small cast but here the lack of people in the streets severed the movie's quality and overall enjoyment.

Well there is not much special to write about this Irish horror / thriller. It was not terrible but it could also have been much better. A little more background information about the hooded kids would have been welcome. But all in all I thought Aneurin Barnard gave a good performance playing the agoraphobic father. The story lacks a little bit of punch but wasn't that bad after all. There are much worse movies in this genre then this one. The gang of kids were not that scary but I guess with the lower budget this is the best we can get. To me it was more about the father overcoming his fear of open spaces. It's worth a watch if you have nothing else to do.

Citadel is an excellent example of how to make a horror film and manage your budget successfully. Unlike many other horror films the writer/directors intention are realised well, the abandoned buildings make an exceptionally atmospheric and filmic setting and the main feature of plot and story is not abandoned for cheap effects.Filmed in the dead of winter the ice and snow only adds to the greyness of the lead characters world. Tony has lost almost everything and suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result,making him terrified of going out for fear of assault. His wife, who he witnesses being attacked at the hands of hooded youths, is the route of this trauma and being left with a newly born daughter merely adds to his woes. Early in the film he is simply stifled by fear of everything but his therapy sessions and the friendship of the nurse caring for his wife, Marie, allow him to try and move on. After meeting a priest who claims the hooded youths will return for his daughter Tommy's life changes as he gets more fearful of this day and makes an attempt to escape from his life, only to find he is drawn closer to his terrors. The priest and the young blind boy, Danny, he cares for leading him to finally face his fears.Using modern concerns about society and twisting them neatly Ciaran Foy has created a selection of interesting characters and woven them together to create an enjoyably tense and disturbing tale. This is significantly helped by the four main characters and their actors, Tommy (Aneurin Barnard), the priest (James Cosmo), Marie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Danny (Jake Wilson) who all have interesting parts to play and are obviously fully engaged in the project.Effects are meagre throughout the film but are used to add to the atmosphere and the message about facing or at least realising fear is well made with an ending that completes the heroes journey.Direction throughout is good, with classic build ups to shocks and scares which work well; that's why they're classics. The cinematography is clear, directing the watchers eye to the horror and the sound effects are used well. If you're looking for big budget special effects in your horror this is not the film for you but if you're after something more claustrophobic and disturbing, playing on modern beliefs about customs and morality then Citadel is worthy of 90 minutes of your time.