Reed Alexander's Horror Review of "Citadel"

This was under zombie movies on Netflix, which is a bit of a misrepresentation. I wouldn't say the creatures in this movie aren't zombies, more like demons. Not really a spoiler, they get up close and personal with them pretty quick.

But yeah, it was good, totally worth the watch. British films at its best again. The atmosphere was thick dark and brooding. This whole thing takes place in a manor row (British ghetto) and they really lay on how depressing this place is. The acting is fantastic. It’s good for Hollywood. You just don’t get that with horror very often. The plot is not complicated but… it’s kinda dumb. I’ll get into it in the spoilers. Simple is good, simple is easy to digest… but sometimes you can be too simple.

Let me get into the few things that bothered me though.

SPOILERS!!!

Okay, so the main character is agoraphobic, and he became agoraphobic after some of these nasty kids attack his pregnant wife. They rush her off to the hospital, basically just hand the man his baby, then tell him his wife is in a coma. Outside the fact that you don't just hand a premi off like that, I don't get the agoraphobia thing. I mean I can understand PTSD, but agoraphobia? You don’t catch agoraphobia. Fuck, it's not like they even needed to be so specific. You see, the things that attacked his wife sort of feed off fear. If he had post-traumatic stress, that's enough fear right there. Didn't need it to be a specific kind of fear. I mean hell, the guy has a pretty good reason to be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life. These fucking thing infest the whole area.

Then there was this one scene where his group therapist was aggravating his condition on purpose. It just comes off as a bizarre reason for an exposition on how attackers can sense the fear in their victims. There's a lot of that in this movie. They make a ridiculously big point about explaining how these things feed on fear. It's mentioned in like every damn scene practically. So, what the hell was the point of freaking out the main character even more? Not very therapeutic if you ask me and it's not like the whole fear thing won't be explained multiple fucking times throughout the whole damn movie. It comes off as needless padding. Believe me, there will be plenty moments to prove that the main character is a cowering jellyfish. They nail that point home in the first few scenes

Then there was the citadel itself. So, they make a big point of mentioning that the cops never come around the manors (again, that's the British ghetto). But I mean... really? There's a tower filled with little demon children that have been running around killing people and stealing their babies pretty blatantly for several years now. And you're telling me that no one got a little curious? No cops were ever sent to investigate ANY of the murders? If you even go near the damn place they come out and start attacking. It's not like it's hard to miss. It's a big damn tower swarming with hooded teenagers and kids. NO ONE noticed this? Except of course for the one priest guy who leads the main character in the tower. I get the main character needed someone to lead him in and get his kid back but the whole thing just stands out as forced.

But yeah, despite its obvious faults it's a pretty damn good movie and I recommend it.