Citadel

Aneurin Barnard an the Tower Block of Terror (image via)

Are you ready to be creeped out? I hope so, because we're going to visit Citadel.


This the second film I saw at BFI's London Film Festival this year, this time hosted at the Screen on the Green in Islington, which is a beautiful place to be scared off your chump.

The film is about agoraphobia. Director Ciaran Foy struggled with agoraphobia after being attacked himself and he channels all his own fear through Tommy [Aneurin Barnard]. Does it come through? Oh, man does it ever come through. The fear just drips off Barnard. You can sense it just as well as the films antagonists can.

Of course, this is a horror movie, so we're not going to leave it dialed to 'abstract fear.' Shit is going to start, very definitely, to go down.




This clip doesn't do it justice, if I'm honest. The pace of the film draws you slowly in to Tommy's fear. By this point in the film you're feeling it right along with him.

If you've read the descriptions on imdb or whatever, you'll know that Tommy has a little daughter and feels that the hoodies are out to get them. The baby could very easily have been a shortcut to the audience's fear, as they so often are in hollywood. But it turned out that the little baby girl was central to the plot, though a bit more as a MacGuffin than a character. There are some other tropes going on as well, but it's a genre film, that's part of it.

Citadel was a very enjoyable film, in a creepy sort of way. Two thumbs up (horror friend!). I suggest you find yourself a screening and get to it. Quite a few coming up this month.