Zach Cregger's new horror film "Weapons" is a very satisfying film to watch, even if you're not a horror film. Telling a single story from multiple perspectives is a tricky proposition, but if it's done well, it's so much fun to watch all the pieces fall into place, and all the reveals and payoffs play out. It also helps that "Weapons" has one of the best hooks for a horror movie that I've come across in a long time. In the Pennsylvania town of Maybrook, we are told, seventeen children from the same third grade class mysteriously vanished in the middle of the night, all at the same time. They simply got out of bed, ran out of their homes into the darkness, and disappeared.
The action picks up a month later, when the school reopens. Starting with the missing children's teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), we follow the POVs of six different characters who are either investigating what happened, or inadvertently stumble across pieces of the truth about the disappearances. Justine is drawing a lot of ire from angry and frightened parents, including Archer (Josh Brolin), one of the fathers. She's also concerned about a child from her class who didn't disappear, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), who appears withdrawn and isolated. Other major characters include Justine's policeman ex-boyfriend Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), the school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), Alex's eccentric Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), and a local drug addict and petty thief, James (Austin Abrams).
"Weapons" had a fantastic teaser trailer that showcased the film's inciting incident, where the missing children are running through the darkened streets at 2:17 AM. This is one of those rare cases where the movie is as good as the trailer, much better than I expected. Zach Cregger does a great job of orchestrating his nightmare imagery, jump scares, and thrilling reveals to build on each other, leaving some parts of the story on cliffhangers that don't get resolved until later. It's similar to how his first film "Barbarian" was put together, but "Weapons" is better written with a much more compelling group of characters. It helps that the budget and the caliber of the acting talent have both gotten a boost. However, the storytelling is the main event. I love how multiple characters come to the same conclusions via different routes. I love the use of jump cuts to get laughs. I love that the real protagonist of the film isn't revealed until the last third of the film, and that the villains are as funny as they are terrifying. And boy are there some potent terrors in this one!
Much of the chatter that I've seen around "Weapons" so far has come from people trying to read hidden meanings into the film ("the real villain is alcoholism!"), and I think that's a result of the worldbuilding being as good as it is. Without ever drawing too much attention to it, you can see the way that characters are separated by class and social strata, with hints of more complicated histories everywhere. By using all these different POVs, you get to spend time in each of these characters' private worlds, and see how they think and react. In the first part of the movie with Justine, notably, all the other POV characters appear, but some are on the edges of the frame, or not quite in her field of vision. And as the movie goes on, it becomes clear how very important things can be overlooked by those who are only focused on what they want or care about.
All the performances are good, but I want to single out Cary Christopher and Amy Madigan, who shoulder a significant amount of the film, and do a great job of it. I'll refrain from being mean to a similar film from last year that "Weapons" reminds me of, but Amy Madigan's performance is exactly how the creepy/funny line should be handled in a film like this. Aunt Gladys has surely secured her place in the horror movie pantheon.
Finally, despite the participation of so many kids, this is not a horror film for kids. Many of the deaths are pretty upsetting, which I appreciate is warned for right up front. However, there are no naked hijinks like there were in "Barbarian," and the ending is - well let's just say it's a little out of left field for a horror film, but in a good way. I heartily recommend "Weapons" for all your scary movie needs. It's easily the one I've enjoyed the most this summer.
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