Review: ‘Weapons’ is dangerously creepy
‘Weapons’ explores why a group of children secretly ran out of their houses in the middle of the night, but the answer is far from comforting.
The flipside of survivor’s guilt is other people blaming you for being the only one to remain. Everyone asks questions to which you can’t provide answers. They all expect you to know more because you were among those who didn’t return, but in reality you probably know less than they do as they study the incident from every possible angle. In addition, all the unwanted attention doesn’t allow you the time to process what happened, so in the end no one gets what they need. In Weapons, a mystery takes hold of a small town and the answers are not forthcoming.
One morning, the only people to show up for Justine Gandy’s (Julia Garner) third-grade class are her and Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). No one knows what happened to the other 17 children, except that they left their homes in the middle of the night and never came back. As the only remaining class members, Justine and Alex are interrogated about the whereabouts of the missing kids. While the boy is cleared of any involvement, everyone is convinced the teacher must be involved since it only affected her classroom. The police have no leads after a month-long investigation, so some concerned citizens take it upon themselves to uncover the truth.
Writer-director Zach Cregger likes a mystery with no straight answer. His previous film, Barbarian, began with someone becoming accidentally trapped in a basement and grew increasingly unsettling. This time, the gist of the thriller is described in the movie’s tagline, so it’s not surprising it opens with the events leading up to the near empty classroom. What follows is a series of character vignettes that weave together and eventually answer the question, “How did we get here?” Cregger’s skill is demonstrated in how each chapter unfolds, avoiding repetition and cleverly overlapping so they lead into each other and build out the bigger picture.
The narrative is driven by the characters who didn’t stop trying to unravel the mystery. Their unauthorized investigation gives audiences the pieces they need to solve the puzzle. However, even once the cause is discovered, there’s still quite a bit of story to tell. There’s a sinister atmosphere that intensifies as stranger things keep happening and the tale becomes increasingly creepier. Consequently, the answer to what happened to the children provides little comfort when it finally is revealed.
The film has a dark sense of humour, unexpectedly sprinkling laughter in between the horror. There are some chilling build ups to several jump scares and an overall eerie feeling that’s impossible to shake. Yet, there’s also some genuinely funny moments that arise from the characters being realistic. Everyone involved delivers a top-notch performance, portraying fully developed personalities that are being driven to the edge of madness by the situation.
Justine is already flawed, and Garner finds the right balance between well-meaning and reckless as she tries to deal with the pressure of being the town’s no. 1 suspect. Josh Brolin portrays a father consumed by his son’s disappearance and obsessed with the idea that Justine knows what happened. Christopher is at the heart of the story, being the only kid not to run away and convincingly wearing Alex’s burden throughout the picture. Alden Ehrenreich and Benedict Wong play supporting yet vital roles in uncovering the clues to the mystery, each warranting their own chapter in the story. And Amy Madigan turns in a big character performance with a hairstyle that defies Superman’s Guy Gardner’s cut.
Cregger continues to prove he’s not afraid to do the unexpected in a film, nor does he shy away from blood and gore, combining to produce another gripping and sometimes horrifying picture from the filmmaker.
Director: Zach Cregger
Starring: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin and Alden Ehrenreich
