Written by: Zach Cregger
Starring: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher
Rating: [4/5]
Some things have no real explanation to them. This unexplainable void leaves everyone grasping for something to clarify by any means necessary. It leads to the fear and frustration on display in Weapons as a terrifying circumstance leads to a sinister incident aimed at the most vulnerable population in our society. An impressive feature demonstrating Zach Cregger is here to stay as a filmmaker.
In a small town in Pennsylvania, a singular classroom of 17 students within an elementary school all get up and leave their homes one night at 2:17 AM, leaving no reason why. This leaves their teacher, Justine (Julia Garner), in a disconcerting position given she’s the only common denominator between these children and she has no real explanation for why this has transpired.
Teachers have to deal with so much on a daily basis that demonstrates how little they are paid for the work they do. They receive blame for problems out of their control and stick through it for the purposes of being there for the kids and their education. The situation Justine has found herself in puts her in a place where she rightfully looks like a prime suspect for the disappearance of these children, and while she rightfully claims innocence, she finds trouble in proving it. You cannot blame the parents, as this inexplicable event only can lead to one direction for the individual involved, but the mystery at the center of the film remains trying to discover exactly what happened. Even so, this struggle displays how little trust parents have in the educators of their children, which very much reflects the realities of today. Therefore, Justine tries to find the true source, as it’s the only way to truly absolve herself but also allow her to have the clarity in figuring out for herself what happened to the children she also cares deeply about.
When you have the voice of a child narrating something as sinister as what transpires in your film, you just know something eerie is afoot, and that only gets doubled down when we see footage of these children and the manner in which they all left. The way their arms hung in the air while they ran brings plenty of pause and is genuinely terrifying, as surely nothing natural could have possibly caused this. Something remains afoot, and the more the film reveals, the more disturbing this whole situation becomes right before our eyes.
While this classroom of children disappeared on this night, curiously one child remained of the entire group. He’s certainly the key to discovering what happened, and the rest of the film justifies that very opinion. Cary Christopher as Alex displays this troubled situation for this young child as we learn how he has found himself in this circumstance and as we learn of the true villain behind it all, manipulating everyone involved. It hits at the central thesis of this film in the way it exhibits the way children face abuse and other horrifying situations through no fault of their own but must display a level of poise just to survive. Equally heartbreaking as it is terrifying, adding something extra in the way we view the experience for all involved.
Weapons serves as Zach Cregger’s latest film after breaking out with Barbarian, a film that came out of nowhere and completely knocked my socks off. Cregger, with much more hype behind him, does not necessarily deliver something better than his previous film, but it certainly has plenty on its mind. Some components appear much more obvious than others. When you have an enormous assault rifle appearing above a house, it displays Cregger left no room for subtlety in the metaphor he sought to exhibit through this film. Even then there are elements of horror in this that are truly bone-chilling to the core, especially when we learn more about the mystery at hand. We begin to see the predilections Cregger has as a director, across his two films, which somehow includes a joy in watching individuals get their heads bashed in. All in all, this film demonstrates that this man is a bright spot in the world of horror, and with this run, it excites what else he seeks to produce to give us the chills.
Delivering plenty of frights, disturbing circumstances, and an intriguing viewpoint, Weapons works on multiple layers in the way it presents a terrifying situation and somehow makes it all scarier. We have a whole host of good performances by this cast, especially Amy Madigan, who did so well as Gladys she broke the longstanding streak of horror performances not receiving recognition by the Academy Awards. Zach Cregger continues to rise in profile through another strong outing as a horror filmmaker, demonstrating he’s one not to miss whenever another one of his projects reaches the multiplex.
Films with Josh 
