Weapons – Review

Geek Culture

a day ago

The horror and comedy genres may lie at opposite ends of the spectrum, but there are commonalities in their execution. For one, a good grasp of timing is key to delivering an effective punchline or jumpscare, serving to unravel different forms of tension. It's probably no coincidence, then, that some of the best scares have been established by filmmakers with comedy backgrounds, including John Krasinski ( The Office ), who established the A Quiet Place universe, Jordan Peele ( Key & Peele ), best known for Get Out and Nope , and more recently, comedian turned director Zach Cregger ( Friends With Benefits ), whose debut film Barbarian took the world by storm in 2022.
Grossing US$45.4 million worldwide against a budget of US$4 to US$4.5 million, the indie thriller earned and fed curiosity with a deceptively simple framework involving a woman, a double-booked Airbnb, and a basement, earning praise for its writing, direction, cast performances, and tense atmosphere. Much of this continues to pervade Cregger's latest ambition, a genre-blending horror mystery that delights as much as it bewilders, topped off with a polished blend of morbid humour and grisly violence.
Weapons weaponises modern fears well, paranoia first and foremost. The premise is straightforward, succinctly summarised by the liner on its official poster: 'Last night at 2:17 am, every child from Mrs. Gandy's class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark, and they never came back.' It's a powerful hook, with the macabre pose of the missing kids feeding into the sense of uneasiness and anxiety, inspired by photojournalist Nick Ut's impactful Vietnam War snapshot, Napalm Girl.
Only one kid ends up unscathed, but surveillance footage captured by porch cameras and security systems reveals no motives or clues as to how the incident occurred. Suspicion naturally falls on their teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner, Ozark ), who becomes the easy target of grieving parents during a town hall meeting, especially Archer Graff (Josh Brolin, Avengers: Infinity War ), who insists that she must be responsible somehow.
Once the school reopens after an investigation period, Justine is suspended from duty and advised to lay low, despite wanting to resume teaching, but that doesn't free her from acts of harassment that extend to vandalism, a threatening phone call, knocking on her door, and more. Puzzled and frustrated, she launches her own investigation into the mass disappearance, subsequently finding an unlikely ally in Archer.
But the less known about its story, the better. Unravelling in a Rashomon -esque structure (Cregger cites Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia as inspiration), minus the unreliable narrative touch, Weapons follows six different perspectives: Justine; Archer; young cop and Justine's occasional hookup Paul (Alden Ehrenreich, Blue Jasmine ); the sympathetic, well-intentioned school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong, 3 Body Problem ); an unhoused drug addict James (Austin Abrams, The Walking Dead ); and Alex (Cary Christopher, Day of Our Lives ), the sole student from Justine's class who didn't go missing.
Each of these chapters weaves in neatly, rewinding at the start of a new section to reveal fresh insights and establish more context for the previous scenes. The intricate execution allows the pieces to fit together satisfyingly, playing out so smoothly that viewers are able to connect the dots even before the whole picture comes alive on the big screen. Along the way, flashes of faces smudged in clown-like makeup play into the characters' fears, keep the tension high, and set the stage for a late-arrival appearance.
It certainly helps that the point-of-view storytelling is led by strong individual performances, starting with Justine's duality. Gardner proves adept at playing the role of a compassionate, sympathetic teacher who bares her teeth when provoked and makes questionable, though understandable, decisions, while Ehrenreich commands attention with a seamless shift between Paul's hard-boiled and mellower sides. Brolin is convincing as the brash, hot-tempered Archer, who gives off the impression of a bully, even if his frustration is well-warranted, and Abrams effortlessly brings out the jittery desperation and twitchy sensibilities of a drug addict.
Both Christopher and Amy Madigan ( Roe vs. Wade ), in a role that's best kept a mystery, are the standouts, with the former painting a striking image of a lonely, tortured-soul Alex. Still, the multi-character focus is a bit of a double-edged sword, as the uneven screentime leaves a few of them, including Archer, feeling underutilised. As the story progresses, some of the intrigue loses its charm, too.
At its core, Weapons is an instrument of horror, which means frights. Leaning more into the intangible evils and a lingering sense of uneasiness than outright jump scares, the film wields suspense like a sharp, well-honed sword and never fails to stick its landing. It also maintains tension well from one scene to another, reinforced by dynamic camera work and a score that sometimes adopts contrasting, cheery tunes to elevate the chill factor.
While violence is interspersed throughout the film, expect plenty more grisly action in the final stretch. The child narrator in the opening scene says, 'A lot of people die in a lot of really weird ways in this story,' and boy, is that an understatement – alongside gory entrails, brutal head-bashing, and more, there's a sequence that uses a potato peeler as a weapon (yikes!).
The humour is as twisted and dark as it gets, conveyed through visceral physical comedy, a grotesque grand finale, and campy moments. Sometimes, the jokes can take a while to set in, and when they do, the absurdity and bizarreness of it all will take viewers to the many times in the movie where a character goes, 'What the f**k!'. The comedic element and lack of a more traditional horror experience may disappoint genre enthusiasts, but there's no denying Cregger's mastery in combining the thrills with the spills.
Word has it that Peele parted ways with longtime managers Joel Zadak and Peter Principato after losing the auction for this film's production rights, and it's easy to see why. There's a strangely hypnotic quality to Weapons that keeps viewers on constant tenterhooks, promising a satisfying romp of innovation, intrigue, and suspense. Like Barbarian , it has little interest in answering the big whys and hows, because certain genre elements are simply inexplicable; instead, the chiller pours its attention into crafting a new standard for genre-blending storytelling, led by a solid cast.
Summary
Gripping, thrilling, and bizarre at times, Weapons weaves a strong cast and macabre humour into a suspenseful horror mystery that makes clever work of the genre. Story - 7.5/10
Direction - 9/10
Characterisation - 8/10
Geek Satisfaction - 9/10
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth's theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia's greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really. Review Warner Bros. Weapons Zach Cregger