Weapons – Dir: Zach Cregger (13th Floor Film Review)
Zach Cregger’s follow-up to Barbarian is a twisty little frog-in-hot-water number that starts out eerie and slow, then subtly turns up the heat to nerve-jangling proportions.
Starring: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan.
Let me begin by admitting: if you really wanted to terrify me with a film about the weaponisation of children, it would involve a relentlessly screaming baby and a 17-hour economy flight. But we all have our triggers, right?
So, for anyone who missed the clever marketing campaign preceding the cinema release: the narrative lynchpin of Weapons is the simultaneous disappearance of 17 children—all from the same grade school class—vanishing from their homes at precisely 2:17 AM.
The film unfolds in chapters, each told from a different character’s perspective: first Justine, then an anguished and angry father named Archer (Josh Brolin), followed by Paul the cop, a local drug addict (Austin Abrams), and finally little Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher)—the only one of Miss Gandy’s students who didn’t disappear.
Weapons is a very different beast. Part meditation on the fragility of life, part grotesque fairy tale, it resists easy categorisation. To call it a horror film in the purest sense would do it a disservice. Yes, there are jump scares, and yes, Cregger maintains a suffocating sense of unease throughout, but there’s also something more lyrical and eerie at play.
The film opens with a haunting and strangely beautiful sequence: children fleeing their homes, arms outstretched like paper planes, set to George Harrison’s Beware of Darkness. It perfectly sets the tone for this unnerving slow burn of a movie.
The glacial pacing of the first 30 minutes might test some viewers’ patience. But it’s this deliberate foundation-building that pays off later, as each chapter adds another piece to the puzzle.
Each main character is given their moment. Julia Garner plays homeroom teacher Justine Gandy, whose entire class—except one—vanishes overnight. With no concrete evidence to pin on her, the townsfolk settle for branding her a witch (literally, with spray paint on her car—because foreshadowing). Justine, understandably invested in uncovering the truth, has her own demons: namely, a drinking problem and a morally questionable entanglement with her ex, Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), a local cop who’s married and trying to stay sober in more ways than one.
The narrative jumps back and forth in time, presenting fragmented viewpoints from key players: Principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), Paul the spiralling officer, James (Austin Abrams) the junkie, and finally Alex Lilly, the quiet, anxious boy left behind. Rounding out Alex’s story is his family, including a chilling and darkly funny turn by Amy Madigan as the mysterious Aunt Gladys.
Cregger plays his hand with precision and purpose, each character’s chapter slotting neatly into the overall structure like a puzzle piece. The less said about the ending, the better—both to preserve the experience and in the interest of not blowing my word count.
Weapons is a well-crafted (pun intended—you’ll get it later) modern take on a dark fairy tale. Think Brothers Grimm, not Disney. Then again, Cinderella is also a dark story if you really think about it: a man dances with a woman all night, can’t remember what she looks like, and must try shoes on a bunch of strangers’ feet to find her again. Welcome to Tinder, Cinders.
But I digress. Let’s not let my bad dating history derail this review.
The fairy tale element is especially evident in Alex, a sweet-natured, slightly anxious child reminiscent of the lame boy left behind in the Pied Piper of Hamelin—the one who doesn’t follow the piper’s tune when the rest of the children are led away as punishment for the sins of their parents.
For the squeamish: consider this a warning. There are some graphic scenes—including one with a common kitchen utensil—that may make you think twice before peeling potatoes for the Sunday roast.
Jo Barry
Weapons is in cinemas now
