Weapons ~ Review

By: [email protected] on
Every town has its scary urban legends that children tell each other on the playground. These stories are about that abandoned house at the end of the street, the weird kid who doesn’t talk to anybody, or that one story about a third-grade class from a couple of years ago. These stories are told with a breathless intensity, with the logic of nightmares. They’re weirdly funny, gruesome, and scary, much like a fairy tale. Zach Cregger’s Weapons is a live-action version of one of these urban legends. And had Sinners also not been released, it would be the best horror movie of the year. Now, Weapons plays best if you know next to nothing about it, so I’ll give my summation here. Weapons is a fantastic film, go see it. If you want a little more sizzle with your review steak, light spoilers ahead.
 
One night, in the sleepy town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, seventeen third graders got out of bed at two in the morning, ran off into the woods, and vanished. When their teacher, Justine (Julia Garner), arrived at school that morning, she found her entire class missing, except for one student, the introverted and shy Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). From there, the film tells its story non-linearly, and we follow five different characters as they intersect with each other and gradually reveal the deeper mystery. Archer (Josh Brolin), is a devastated father of one of the third graders, Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) is a police officer who is having an extramarital affair with Justine. Marcus (Benedict Wong) is the principal of the school, and James (Austin Abrams) is a local drug addict. The final character the film follows is Alex himself. That’s the basic setup, and that’s really all I’m comfortable sharing. The pleasures of Cregger’s script lie in its unique structure and twists and turns.
 
In many horror movies that rely on tension and mystery, the suspense is deflated when the mystery is ultimately revealed. This is usually because the audience’s imagination is more powerful than whatever the filmmakers have cooked up. Weapons, on the other hand, weaponizes (pun intended) the audience’s imagination. So, when the film gives us the reveal, it doesn’t over-explain itself, which makes everything that much scarier.
 
It also helps that the reveal is centered around a performance from an underrated character actor. The actor is both terrifying and hilarious. This actor should be praised to the high heavens for their performance here, but to keep things spoiler-free, I will not name them.
 
The cast is fantastic. Julia Garner brings warmth, wit, and sadness to a woman who is trying to grapple with deep confusion and survivor’s guilt, all while the entire town has turned against her. Josh Brolin gives a heartbreaking performance as a father seeking answers. Ehrenreich plays a good guy just barely keeping his rage in check under sobriety and sex. And Benedict Wong is great as a normal, everyday principal. Austin Abrams adds a fun entry in his “scum bum” playbook, and he’s equally funny and sad. It’s difficult to be a child actor in a horror movie, but Cary Christopher is the real deal, and I suspect he will be a much bigger name as he gets older.
 
Cregger’s direction manages to walk the tightrope between tension, humor, and pathos with such aplomb that I can’t wait to see what’s next from him. I just hope Weapons doesn’t become a franchise, let good stories end.
 
Weapons is a wild ride of a film. Funny and scary in equal measure. I really can’t recommend it enough.
 
Four stars out of four