Review of Citadel (2012) by Jesse O — 14 Apr 2013

This is quite a good film. The story is fairly simple, a gang of feral children kill his pregnant wife and take his 9-month old child so an agoraphobic father overcomes his fears to save his daughter. That's it, simple and to the point.

The movie is actually, and surprisingly, well-made. This film, technically, isn't going to blow anyone away but it does a good job with the limited resources they have. What I liked is that the film doesn't really focus that much of their attention on the horror aspects.

Though you could say that Tommy's fears are horrific, these fears are really used to develop the character instead of scaring the audience. The film focuses on Tommy and how he manages to get his fears under control when his daughter is in danger.

And the acting is decent. Aneurin Barnard, who plays Tommy, is good and makes this character sympathetic instead of pathetic. And it would've been very easy to make the character pathetic, but Aneurin keeps that from happening.

But the real highlight has to be James Cosmo as the foul-mouthed, badass priest. This character, while not exactly three-dimensional, is entertaining as hell, pardon the pun. He's just fun and definitely the highlight of the film.

I did like the climax of the film, which has a lot more blood than the two acts but is still strong as I like the way the relationship with Tommy and his daughter was developed. It just feels believable, in this world of course.

So, this is a lame review but this is just a good, solid horror film. I wouldn't buy it, but it's a damn good rental.