znegative I had heard a lot about Citadel, so perhaps I went into this movie expecting too much. I also think that if I hadn't already seen 'Ils' ('Them') that I would have thought this flic was a lot better.The one thing that I liked about both Citadel and Ils is that both are intelligent horror films which are metaphors for something deeper than what is on the surface. Ils deals with Xenophobia (or rather, it could be argued is a piece of Xenophobic propaganda lol), and Citadel, which has a similar plot, is a metaphor about the fear of becoming a parent.On an intellectual level I thought that Citadel had a lot going for it. Unfortuntately, it just reminded me too much of Ils in the stylistic department, and even worse, it just couldn't measure up.Don't get me wrong, this one is light years ahead of most horror movies, but there are also a lot better ones out there.

PhilipGHarris 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.

Filmsploitation The Film Podcast The Review: One day, Tommy's (Aneurin Barnard) pregnant girlfriend Joanne (Amy Shiels) is attacked by hoodied adolescent thugs outside their flat in the decrepit urban apartment building known as the Citadel. She's left in a coma, but doctors are able to deliver the baby girl, whom Tommy raises alone for nine months. By that time, he's moved out of the building but has become an agoraphobic shell, petrified to leave his home except to visit Joanne in the hospital and to attend therapy sessions.However, Tommy's safe haven is violated when the hooded figures track him down and break into his home. He's able to ward them off, but thanks to a belligerent local priest (James Cosmo) who's had dealings with the seemingly supernatural entities, he determines what they're after: his baby daughter. Tommy must thus overcome his anxiety to protect his child and uncover the truth behind the dark and demented beings that are haunting his every moment. Citadel is a film that shifts gears sharply but never clumsily, gingerly skipping from drama to horror to introspection. There's a quiet sadness to the scenes that establish Tommy's new way of life and his descent into madness is played subtly, patiently. In trajectory and execution, Ciaran Foy's relentlessly intense ode to urban paranoia, Citadel, is much like a nightmare in its refusal to ground itself in a relatable, or safe, framework for the duration of its runtime. Even the quieter moments away from the central chaos and threat are staged with unease and an unnerving unpredictability, adding visceral viability to a story that is as irreverent and socially conscious as it is psychological and character driven. This impressively-rendered unease is apparently from the opening when soon-to-be parent Tommy (Aneurin Barnard) watches his pregnant wife get attacked by hooded youths from within a malfunctioning elevator. Pulling a needle from her stomach, his ensuing panic and disbelief ultimately defines him for months to come when he's left alone with a baby after his wife succumbs to an "undetermined infection." Agoraphobic and riddled with self-doubt about parental abilities, Tommy starts seeing hooded youths outside of his window and eventually inside his home. And because Foy avoids establishing a separate style for reality and inner psychological environment, we're never sure if the constant attacks are paranoid delusions or an external threat. While his nurse and potential love interest (Wunmi Mosaku) believes his fear is irrational, a foul-mouthed priest (James Cosmo) asserts that these slum-dwelling youths are actually infected with a virus and will stop at nothing to steal Tommy's baby.The film astutely captures the nature of victimhood as juxtaposed with nascent parental anxieties, Tommy's character arc of controlling fear and escaping the cycle of passivity is in itself a driving force. But beyond this, there's the added sociological element of generational class system repetition, noting that the infection these youths actually have is that of a morally abject upbringing sure to define them as lifelong predators, looking for weaker targets like Tommy.In such, the parental subtext proves circular as our protagonist makes literal the metaphor of stealing back his child from the confines of a lower class fate. Here, needles and infections mirror the drug-addled and grim futures of erratic, dejected youths, just as Tommy's eventual quest to rescue his son from their clutches—and their cyclic social deprivation—works as a satisfying and cathartic (but politically incorrect) bit of caustic honesty.It's rare for a film to capture visceral intensity, psychological complexity or cultural relevance with much lasting aplomb. But in the case of Citadel, Ciaran Foy has scored a hat trick by smartly interweaving all three elements into a riveting, low key work of greatness.

Paul Magne Haakonsen Unfathomably dull and boring. "Citadel" is one of the more pointless and irrelevant movies that I have seen in a while. You just sit there throughout the movie and think "why?"The story is about a family that live in a condemned building, where the Tommy (played by Aneurin Barnard) see his wife stabbed down by hooded strangers. Their unborn baby is miraculously saved, but the wife dies. Alone with the child, Tommy is given a strange warned by an odd priest (played by James Cosmo) that 'they will come for her'. Tommy's fear intensifies and grows more extreme as his home gets invaded by these hooded strangers and they seem to be haunting his every trail.There were no thrills to this movie, and the storyline was just downright silly and a waste of time, in my opinion. I just didn't get the meaning of this movie.The things that the movie has working for it is the production value, and also the performances put on by Aneurin Barnard and James Cosmo, particularly the latter actor. And also the pace in which the movie tells it story and progresses, it is quickly up in gear and the movie stays in high pace."Citadel" is an odd movie that doesn't appeal to a broad audience. I am sure there there is a segment in the audience that the movie will cater and they will find great enjoyment in the movie. I, however, wasn't fond or entertained by this movie in any way.