Director: Zach Cregger
Writer: Zach Cregger
Stars: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich
Synopsis: When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
Weapons is from Zach Cregger, a filmmaker who has built quite a cult following over the past three years since his breakout 2022 independent horror film Barbarian. That smart, ominously funny, and frightening hit was one of the most unpredictable thrillers of the decade, delivering thrills, chills, and spills, proving that the line between horror and comedy is much thinner than most of us realize.
The former comedian, floundering in comedy films since shifting to horror, has made his fourth film behind the camera. Although it’s not his best, it is damn close. Weapons is a thrilling, gruesome, and downright wicked horror thriller that packs a handful of dirty punches. A masterclass in frozen fear, Cregger’s latest horror haunt is completely creepy and gloriously ghastly from start to finish.
The story tells the tale of the doomed community of Maybrook, a quaint small town in Pennsylvania. One of the residents is Justine Gandy (Julia Garner of Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps), an elementary school teacher who discovers that all but one of her students—Alex (Mank’s Cary Christopher), the only child from Justine’s class to show up the next day—are missing, leading her to question what happened to the rest of her students.
An outbreak of chickenpox? Did they start testing for COVID-19 again? A field trip that no one informed Justine about? No, that would all be too simple. What happened was that seventeen of Justine’s students, one by one, woke up at 2:17 in the morning, climbed out of bed, walked out the front door without their parents or family noticing, fled their homes, ran into the cold darkness, only never to return.
Justine, perhaps experiencing survivor’s guilt, is put on leave by her boss (Benedict Wong) as she becomes the target of the vengeful. She turns to alcohol to cope with the mystery. She seeks comfort from her ex-boyfriend, Paul (Blue Jasmine’s Alden Ehrenreich), hoping that perhaps rolling around in the sheets with him will somehow shed light on what happened. Soon, Justine begins to have dreams of the children and a mysterious woman. One of the parents of a missing student, Archie (Josh Brolin), has similar nightmares. He soon confronts Justine, as they seek to unravel the mystery.
Weapons is a nail-biting horror thriller, a real armrest-grabber, causing the hair on your forearms to stand and your knuckles to turn white. (The movie should come with a warning for those suffering from arthritis.) From the very beginning, Cregger’s script grabs you and doesn’t let go. Within the first few minutes, the children disappear, mob mentality begins to set in, and mass hysteria creates unbearable tension.
Without giving away any spoilers, not all of the chances Cregger takes work, but it’s the sheer ambition in his swings that keeps the viewer constantly engaged and entertained. Perhaps one of Cregger’s greatest gifts is the way he intentionally plays with his audience. He toys with us, winding us up. We know the dreaded “jump scare” is coming, but he creates such controlled anxiety that when the scene finally hits, it rips and hard.
That being said, Weapons tends to settle into a slow burn more than anticipated. Then again, that’s what slow burns are for. The cinematography from Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and the collaborative nature of the frenetic, pulsating score from Cregger, Hays, and Ryan Holladay can be felt viscerally. These are meant to make you feel uneasy, uncomfortable, and even unhinged.
However, what makes Weapons even more powerful is that it offers no easy answers, and not every subplot is resolved. If anything, the metaphor is far from subtle, not exactly obvious, but so well executed that it elevates the genre picture into something bold, ambitious, and unwilling to pander. Cregger guides us with the hands of a steady and seasoned thriller filmmaker, forcing the viewer to look and take in what we would typically turn away from.
You can watch Weapons only in theaters on August 8th!
