Citadel

Los Angeles Times by

The feature debut from Irish writer-director Ciarán Foy, Citadel attempts to transform mundane anxieties into the stuff of a horror film. But the initial tension of the premise dissipates like a slow leak.

The Playlist by Drew Taylor

Citadel, which won the Midnight award at the fest, further explores the fears and anxieties of urban Britain (and Ireland), and the results are sometimes scary, sometimes silly, and always politically questionable.

The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis

This spare first feature from the Irish filmmaker Ciaran Foy (drawing on his own experiences) has an atavistic pulse, evoking a decaying society where elevators fail and bus drivers cower behind mesh grills.

Variety by Joe Leydon

Writer-director Ciaran Foy skillfully taps into primal fears and urban paranoia to keep his audience consistently unsettled in Citadel, an intensely suspenseful horror-thriller.

The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore

A dispiriting horror cheapie whose monsters-in-the-projects premise plays out like an anti-welfare parable.

Time Out by Keith Uhlich

The more that fright-flick conventions take over, the more the movie's recognizable and resonant human fears are dulled.

Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman

I think Foy simply wants to deliver well-gauged terror and make a few points about personal responsibility and the need to overcome our fears. That he does quite well.

The A.V. Club by Noel Murray

Citadel is plenty scary: a bare-bones man-against-his-worst-fears white knuckler, shot through deep, menacing shadows.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen

No longer content with simple conservatism, this horror is downright totalitarian.