‘Weapons’ Review
Stars: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Amy Madigan, Benedict Wong, Cary Christopher, Austin Abrams | Written and Directed by Zach Cregger
Writer-director Zach Cregger returns with compelling horror mystery Weapons, a worthy follow-up to his acclaimed 2022 hit Barbarian. Impressively structured, terrifically tense and superbly acted, it’s one of the best films of the year.
Set in a small suburban town, the film begins with a child’s voiceover explaining that earlier that week, at exactly 2.17am, seventeen children from the same class all went missing simultaneously, running out of their homes in bizarre fashion, as if they were playing at being aeroplanes. With the community bewildered and angry, fingers are pointed at the children’s teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), but there’s also the unexplained mystery of why just one lonely young boy in her class, Alex (Cary Christopher), was spared.
The story is structured with six chapters, each named after a different character, with the events rewinding and overlapping, giving us alternate perspectives. Other characters include angry father Archer (Josh Brolin), Justine’s kindly headmaster Marcus (Benedict Wong), troubled cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) and homeless drug addict James (Austin Abrams).
The script unfolds like an expertly constructed mystery puzzle, with all the pieces clicking satisfyingly into place. Tonally, the film resembles Denis Villeneuve’s dark 2013 missing child drama Prisoners, though there are also significant echoes of Stephen King, especially as the film gets closer to its thrilling conclusion.
Cregger’s pacing of Weapons is exceptional, and the mystery is consistently compelling throughout, with each reveal perfectly timed within the story. In particular, there are a number of what can only be referred to as ‘WTF moments’, raising questions that will eventually be answered, but serve to further heighten the mystery and the horror value in the moment.
In addition, Cregger delivers some top-notch jump scares (loud knocks on the door, that sort of thing) and cranks up the tension to pulse-pounding levels, before unleashing moments of sudden, shocking violence that leave the audience reeling. To say any more would be entering spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that you’ll never look at one particular household item quite the same way afterwards.
The performances are superb across the board. Garner is terrific as Justine, whose life already appears to be a bit of a car crash even before the kids disappear – her scenes with Aldenreich (also excellent) are particularly good. There’s also strong work from Brolin, who shows the pain and desperation beneath the surface of his anger, and a stand-out turn from Amy Madigan, who shows up around halfway through the film as Alex’s weirdo aunt Gladys, with excessive make-up and a curly ginger wig that makes her look like a clown.
It is fair to say that Weapons isn’t entirely without flaws. There’s one notable moment – apparently referencing the film’s title – that goes bafflingly unexplained and resists easy interpretation even once everything is revealed. A note of extra mystery isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but here it is actively jarring and feels like something that was added as a result of an ill-advised producer’s note.
However, that small niggle aside, this is a deliciously well-crafted horror mystery that grips from start to finish, delivering tension, thrills, a consistently creepy atmosphere and wince-inducing gore moments. Here’s hoping the studio throws large amounts of money at Cregger to make whatever he wants to make next, because after this and Barbarian back-to-back, he’s clearly an exciting genre talent to watch.
**** 4/5
Weapons is in cinemas now.
