Pure, gnarly horror leaves viewers on edge for full two-hour ride
Director: Zach Cregger
Cast: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan
Rating: (R16)
★★★★
REVIEWED BY AMASIO JUTEL
From his 2022 Detroit basement horror, Barbarian, Zach Cregger has levelled up in almost every way in Weapons (Rialto, Reading) — his sprawling, chaptered study of suburban small-town Pennsylvania. Somewhat thematically foggy, Weapons is a densely layered masterclass in script writing and cinematic horror technique.
On Wednesday, at 2.17am, 17 children from Justine Gandy's third-grade class walked out of their homes, never to be seen again. All but one. Only Alex Lily remains. Justine (Julia Garner), the schoolteacher, is the focal point of anger for parents — the only person who can be directly tied to each of the missing children. Her witch-hunt is led by Archer (Josh Brolin), a crusading parent frustrated by the apparent failings of the police, who is investigating the home security camera footage from other bereft houses. Meanwhile, police officer Paul's (Alden Ehrenreich) brutal assault of James (Austin Abrams), a local homeless man seeking the $50,000 cash reward for information, is caught on his car's dashcam, and Marcus (Benedict Wong), the school principal, probes a Child Protective Services tip-off regarding Alex (Cary Christopher), the final puzzle piece, whose story synthesises Cregger's expertly crafted traumatic tale.
This Paul Thomas Anderson-style sprawling character study takes inspiration from Magnolia. Alden Ehrenreich's hairline, moustache, and authoritarian hubris are a nod to John C. Reilly's Magnolia police officer Jim Curring, while Garner and Abrams split the Melora Walters character from that film into love interest and drug addict. Prisoners and Rosemary's Baby are other potential comparisons.
Some have criticised Weapons for not delivering a clear theme or message — that Barbarian maintains its prescient social commentary, and Weapons struggles to communicate a point. I disagree.
Cregger has undoubtedly infused Weapons with a takedown of the police, with nods to suburban paranoia in a parable analogous to school shootings. The rageful, mob mentality witch-hunt, aimlessly directed, looking to place blame to rationalise inexplicable, sickening acts of violence that unsettle suburban, small-town safety. In a dream sequence, Archer sees a giant assault rifle floating above a house — an image of Lynchian origin (literally), pulled from Cregger's subconscious to evoke an idea; a powerful image without deliberate meaning.
Where Weapons truly succeeds is in its execution of its pure, gnarly horror. Dark cinematography heightens the scares, leaving viewers on edge for the full two-hour ride.
Its ballistic and violent ending is surprisingly emotionally moving, and the striking image of Naruto running children's silhouettes is immediately gripping.
Weapons leaves me excited for what is to come of haunted houses and basements in Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil project.
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Otago Daily Times
14 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Pure, gnarly horror leaves viewers on edge for full two-hour ride
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures/TNS Director: Zach Cregger Cast: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan Rating: (R16) ★★★★ REVIEWED BY AMASIO JUTEL From his 2022 Detroit basement horror, Barbarian, Zach Cregger has levelled up in almost every way in Weapons (Rialto, Reading) — his sprawling, chaptered study of suburban small-town Pennsylvania. Somewhat thematically foggy, Weapons is a densely layered masterclass in script writing and cinematic horror technique. On Wednesday, at 2.17am, 17 children from Justine Gandy's third-grade class walked out of their homes, never to be seen again. All but one. Only Alex Lily remains. Justine (Julia Garner), the schoolteacher, is the focal point of anger for parents — the only person who can be directly tied to each of the missing children. Her witch-hunt is led by Archer (Josh Brolin), a crusading parent frustrated by the apparent failings of the police, who is investigating the home security camera footage from other bereft houses. Meanwhile, police officer Paul's (Alden Ehrenreich) brutal assault of James (Austin Abrams), a local homeless man seeking the $50,000 cash reward for information, is caught on his car's dashcam, and Marcus (Benedict Wong), the school principal, probes a Child Protective Services tip-off regarding Alex (Cary Christopher), the final puzzle piece, whose story synthesises Cregger's expertly crafted traumatic tale. This Paul Thomas Anderson-style sprawling character study takes inspiration from Magnolia. Alden Ehrenreich's hairline, moustache, and authoritarian hubris are a nod to John C. Reilly's Magnolia police officer Jim Curring, while Garner and Abrams split the Melora Walters character from that film into love interest and drug addict. Prisoners and Rosemary's Baby are other potential comparisons. Some have criticised Weapons for not delivering a clear theme or message — that Barbarian maintains its prescient social commentary, and Weapons struggles to communicate a point. I disagree. Cregger has undoubtedly infused Weapons with a takedown of the police, with nods to suburban paranoia in a parable analogous to school shootings. The rageful, mob mentality witch-hunt, aimlessly directed, looking to place blame to rationalise inexplicable, sickening acts of violence that unsettle suburban, small-town safety. In a dream sequence, Archer sees a giant assault rifle floating above a house — an image of Lynchian origin (literally), pulled from Cregger's subconscious to evoke an idea; a powerful image without deliberate meaning. Where Weapons truly succeeds is in its execution of its pure, gnarly horror. Dark cinematography heightens the scares, leaving viewers on edge for the full two-hour ride. Its ballistic and violent ending is surprisingly emotionally moving, and the striking image of Naruto running children's silhouettes is immediately gripping. Weapons leaves me excited for what is to come of haunted houses and basements in Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil project.
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- NZ Herald
Horror movie Weapons confirms director Zach Cregger a freak-out force to be reckoned with
Because the children came from one third-grade classroom at the local school, the good people of Maybrook turn as a mob on the class teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), certain she must have had something to do with the disappearances. She didn't and doesn't, but she's an interestingly imperfect heroine all the same, with weaknesses for vodka and a married policeman lover, Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), that paint her as a highly-strung impulsive. But you'd be on edge, too, if you were getting anonymous death threats and someone had painted 'WITCH' on your car in big red letters. That last is a clue, although possibly pointing in the wrong direction. Weapons unfolds in chapters, each told from the vantage point of a different character: First Justine, then an anguished and angry parent named Archer (Josh Brolin), then Paul the cop, then a local sad-sack drug addict (Austin Abrams), all the way down to little Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the only one of Miss Gandy's students who didn't disappear. Each chapter reveals more of the story; each introduces a smidge more freakishness and grue and sheer what-the-hell. Julia Garner as Justine and Josh Brolin as Archer in 'Weapons.' Photo / Quantrell Colbert, Warner Bros. Pictures Beyond that, I can't say more, since Weapons is nothing if not predicated on surprise. Cregger has a knack for images that linger on a moviegoer's retina, though: the children diving into the dark with arms outstretched like tiny airplanes; the school's principal (Benedict Wong) coming out of nowhere with a face full of blood and his arms outstretched; a front door opening on to a darkness within; a mother and father seated immobilised at a kitchen table. At a certain point, as Justine and Archer join forces to piece together bits of the puzzle, Weapons introduces its wild card, and it is a marvellously wild one indeed. Among its many dark felicities, the movie serves as a reintroduction to an under-recognised (and almost unrecognisable) actress, Amy Madigan, who may be best known for playing Kevin Costner's supportive wife in Field of Dreams (1989) and who here plays a nightmare from our collective unconscious. Madigan gives a startling and unforgettable performance that's the closest Weapons comes to outright comedy while still remaining profoundly unsettling. But funny. And scary. For that reason, Weapons is a movie that begs to be seen in a theatre, where a moviegoer can ride the communal waves of horrified delight. Cregger understands how close screaming is to laughter, and he pitches his movie into the uncanny valley between, where the two fuse into the heightened state reserved for the best roller-coaster rides and scariest ghost stories. He modulates the pace with skill, drawing out suspense, using offscreen sound in novel ways, utilising the camera frame for maximum heebie-jeebies and building to sequences that can reduce an audience to primal howls. (You may never look at a potato peeler the same way again.) The preview audience with whom I saw Weapons was happily wrung dry by the end, and I have to imagine the movie would play very differently in the relative quiet of a home media room. Cregger is two for two as a writer-director now, and it's disappointing to hear that his next project will be a sequel to a reboot of the Resident Evil zombie-horror series. This kind of confident originality with character and story structure and audience manipulation should be encouraged, not stuffed into the straitjacket of intellectual property. That said, I'm withholding a half-star from my critic's rating for Weapons in part because of a few plot holes that might have been closed with some forethought - the investigating detectives are required to be extra-clueless in this movie - but more because I'm expecting even greater things from Zach Cregger in the future. So should you. Three and a half stars. Weapons is in New Zealand cinemas now.
RNZ News
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