Citadel (2012)

Undescribable Perfection

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Perfect cast and a good story

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

CITADEL is another grim and gloomy slice of British urban horror shot with that cheap and depressing digital look, all greys and blues and no life anywhere. Despite the predictability of the visuals, the film turns out to be not too bad, and certainly better than the similarly-themed F. Aneurin Barnard plays a young father grieving his wife's death at the hands of a group of feral children who roam his local council estate causing mischief. The story that plays out is dingy and dark, enlivened only by the presence of the reliably great James Cosmo as a foul-mouthed priest who vows to help our lead tackle the kids responsible. It's a pretty predictable little outing, but there's enough incident here to keep you watching.

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.

I do normally take a look at other reviews of the films I watch, just to see if other people got something that I missed. Here, I think I must have been watching a completely different film. If you check out a lot of the online reviews of 'Citadel' then you'll be told it's one of the best modern horror films ever.It just bored me.It's an Irish horror film about a young man who witnesses his wife being murdered by demon children, leaving him an agoraphobic. He later meets up with a - slightly bonkers - old priest and they team up to fight the aforementioned demon hoodies.It's an okay enough idea (I've seen worse), but I didn't find any of the characters interesting or likable, plus the children weren't that scary (well, no more than their identical clones you see hanging around every off license up and down the country).Yes, it was presented in a reasonably different way which made it clear they were trying to steer away from the Hollywood style of film-making. But, at the end of the day, it didn't take away from the fact that it bored me.Others obviously disagreed. Fair enough.

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.