Weapons Review

Weapons is the second solo directional effort from Zach Cregger, following the success of Barbarian. This time, he delivers a horror mystery set in small-town America.

One night at 2:17 am, 17 children from the same class ran out of their homes and went missing. Their teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), falls under suspicion by the whole town of Maybrook, and she is ostracised because of it. She believes the key to the missing case is Alex (Cary Christopher). Slowly, more people get entangled in the mystery of the missing children.

Weapons has been a hyped film. It has earned a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it has received a similar audience reaction. Cregger has proven himself to be a bold horror director with Barbarian being a twisty and demented film that showed the dark underbelly of American suburbia, as well as being the worst advert for Airbnb. Weapons shares a similar theme about the dark secrets lurking in American suburbia and featured a twisty style of storytelling. These similarities were structural, since Barbarian and Weapons were different stories.

Weapons was told in chapters and a non-linear fashion. It showed the same events from different perspectives as it slowly revealed more of the mystery. It was a film that unfolded gradually. Narratively, it was more like a crime film, such as Pulp Fiction and Bad Times at the El Royale. It made Weapons different and intriguing as different pieces of the puzzle fell into place, revealing why certain events occurred. Every chapter was built on its predecessor.

Weapons had a Stephen King quality to it. Many of King’s stories have been set in small-town America. Carrie, Salem’s Lot, and It were examples of this, and many of them show broader horror or conspiracy. Salem’s Lot was about a town being taken over by vampires, and in It, many adults choose to ignore the history of disappearing children. The multiple perspectives would have fit in a King novel.

Weapons was a wide-ranging film because of its chapters and characters. It was about different characters getting involved in the investigation, whether intentionally or unintentionally. The film started with Julia’s story as she became a pariah, held with disdain by the townspeople, and constantly watched. A lot of Julia’s scenes were long, continuous shots that focused on the character as people watched her in the background. It added to the sense of paranoia that the character was experiencing.

All the characters were desperate in some way. Justine was trying to prove her innocence, Archer (Josh Brolin) was searching for his son, and James (Austin Abrams) was a drug addict looking for a way to pay for his next fix. Even the villain of the film was desperate because of the state of their health. The characters were flawed, and some acted selfishly. It made them more interesting to watch.

The style of horror did evolve in the film. It started as a modern-day witch hunt due to the suspicion and harassment she suffered from, then into a mystery investigation, and showing what the villain intended to do. There was horror in the thought that characters losing control of their body and becoming 28 Days Later-style rage monsters. Gladys (Amy Madigan) looked and acted a lot like the Longlegs Killer from Longlegs, making her a strange and creepy presence. Scenes set in a house felt like the elevated horror film Antlers.

As well as being an atmospheric horror film, Weapons supplied some horror fun. The film earned an 18 rating in the UK due to violence and gore. Although this was infrequent but when it did show up on screen, it was gruesome and will please any budding psychopath. Weapons had a barmy ending that was bloody entertaining, bloody hilarious, and well, bloody.

Weapons was a wonderfully well-crafted film that was an atmospheric horror mystery and offered pure horror entertainment for mainstream audiences.