Movies
[SXSW Review] ‘Citadel’ is a Freakish Horror Drama
“‘Citadel’ is an incredibly well-shot, terrifying and freakish horror drama that’s loaded with violence, scares and intensity that only David Cronenberg’s ‘The Brood’ could deliver.”
I can’t stand director intros or post-screening Q+A sessions mainly because they fill my head with various excuses and ideas in relation to the screened film. Such the case with the Irish horror drama Citadel, which filmmaker Ciarán Foy explained was a reflection of his own bout with agoraphobia. Having not known this I wonder if I would have loved it half as much…
In Citadel Aneurin Barnard plays Tommy, an agoraphobic that is forced to watch (from inside a broken elevator) his pregnant wife as she’s attacked by a swarm of punk kids. She ends up in a coma forcing Tommy to raise his newborn on his own, an extremely difficult challenge considering he’s terrified of leaving his own apartment. Trapped in his own filth, the apartment complex is being overrun by these young kids who continually attempt to break into his place. He soon learns, with the help of the local priest (who puts on his best Brian Cox performance), that the towers are overrun with blind, infected feral children who can “sense fear.”
As alluded to in the opening paragraph, Citadel is nothing more than an allegory for the director’s own agoraphobia – a therapeutic exercise where he confronts his own personal demons. Knowing this, I was completely engaged in watching how he fleshed out the story, and to see what it would take for Tommy to confront his fears. The deep-seeded idea behind the film, as dark as it is, is quite beautiful. Citadel is a sob story that makes you feel for both the character and director. The surface is a completely different story…
Citadel is an incredibly well-shot, terrifying and freakish horror drama that’s loaded with violence, scares and intensity that only David Cronenberg’s The Brood could deliver. The bleak atmosphere oozes discomfort with Barnard’s performance only adding even more of a punch. While the priest, played by James Cosmo, was an obvious device to move the story without adding too much exposition, his character added an entire new dimension to the plot. His character spews gem after gem, such as when Tommy asks what the children “are”, “They’re demons, Tommy,” he says with a straight face before adding, “You’d believe anything I tell you right now…” His honest intensity towards Tommy reflects the audience and their own issues towards the situation; you just want to yell at him to get over it already, he’s got a kid to protect…
The major problem with Citadel is that Foy made this movie for Foy, not horror fans, not anyone else. It was a cathartic release for him that resulted in a well-made and entertaining feature that structurally could have been a bit more sound. In addition, I highly recommend that whomever acquires the film for distribution remove or re-edit the final shot that displays some CGI effects that are on par with Birdemic (wish I were joking). And while Citadel has its share of issues, ultimately it’s a pretty entertaining genre outing that has enough kicks for the hardcore audience, and enough jolts for those looking for something a bit more tame.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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