‘Citadel’ Blu-ray Review
Continuing in the horror movie genre comes Citadel, a winner of the Midnighters Audience Award at SXSW Film Festival. Citadel tells the story of Tommy, a young husband and soon-to-be father, whose wife befalls a vicious attack. Left to raise their baby alone and suffering from extreme agoraphobia, Tommy eventually realizes that his horror is not yet over and that his fear has a very real basis.
Citadel took me by surprise. Given the name of the movie, I expected that the horror would involve a military like organization with ulterior motives. In the alternative, I was convinced it would involve some kind of church or cult, especially in light of the fact that one of the main characters is a priest.
Instead, and wisely so, Citadel spends most of its time focusing on Tommy and his fear and horror. The viewer spends time realizing the extent of his sadness and his agoraphobia and how much his life truly stopped after that moment with his wife. The director was able to help the viewer along by setting the mood, the lighting and the desolate area to further impress upon Tommy’s isolation. Most of the movie has a blue or gray tint to it. Aside from Tommy, the priest and child later, and Marie, there are very few outside characters. It makes the movie, and Tommy, seem quite lonely.
Although I found the horror part, including the “monsters”, intriguing, I must say that I was more enthralled with Tommy’s story and his way of handling what had happened to him. That stuck with me long after the movie was over. Because of that, I would recommend seeing Citadel if only for the psyhcological aspect to it.
Citadel stars Aneurin Barnard as Tommy and James Cosmo (Game of Thrones) as the unenamored priest that helps Tommy later on. Also in too few scenes is Wunmi Mosaku as Marie, a friendly face intent on helping Tommy come out of his house and out of his man made prison.
Citadel is on Blu-ray and has bonus features that include a “Making Of” featurette that is about 20 minutes long and interviews with the director, Ciaran Foy, as well as with Aneurin Barnard who plays Tommy. Those last about 20 minutes and 15 minutes respectively.
Despite their length, I actually really enjoyed the bonus features. Ciaran Foy shared some personal experiences that were played out in the film and I realized that the film was almost biographical inasmuch a fictional horror film could be. To me, that made the movie scarier than I originally thought it was. Just when I thought I had put the movie behind me, the bonus features drew me back in.
Citadel has English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, 1080 p resolution, and aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Citadel is now available on Amazon.
