Weapons movie review: horror mystery by Barbarian director Zach Cregger is oddly hypnotic
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One of the more powerful horror films to arrive this year, Weapons begins with a child's voice-over explaining that 17 kids have gone missing from the small US town of Maybrook.
Creepier still, they all left their homes at exactly the same time – 2.17am – seemingly of their own volition. Oh, and they all attended the same class at the local junior school. Only teacher Justine (Julia Garner) and one pupil, Alex (Cary Christopher), are still accounted for.
Among the townspeople outraged that the police have made no progress is construction boss Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), whose son Matthew is among the disappeared.
Meanwhile, the boozy Justine is being hounded from all sides – intimidating telephone calls, graffiti on her car that reads 'witch' – as those in the community refuse to believe she has nothing to do with this eerie mystery.
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Written and directed by Zach Cregger, who previously made the sly 2022 horror Barbarian, Weapons is reputedly inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, with its patchwork quilt of characters criss-crossing the San Fernando Valley.
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South China Morning Post
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Weapons director Zach Cregger and star Josh Brolin on the new horror movie
If there is one thing Zach Cregger learned while writing and directing his new horror movie Weapons, it is that the best laughs will not come from the jokes he writes. The film follows Cregger's 2022 solo directorial debut Barbarians, the widely celebrated genre-bending horror. This time, the young director bends even more, spinning a town into chaos when all children but one from the same classroom mysteriously vanish, leaving a trail of questions in their place. The Warner Bros. release opens in cinemas this week and is as creepy as it is hilarious – a delicate balance that required Cregger to strip any intentionality behind his humour, he said. 'If the humour is coming from an authentic reaction that a character's having, then it works,' Cregger said. 'There's a lot of jokes that didn't make it into the movie that I thought were going to be so funny. And then we did a test screening, and nobody laughed and I'm like, OK, it's gotta go.' Play Paranoia runs deep in the film. The town's heartbroken parents are represented by Josh Brolin's character, Archer, whose son is among the missing. The students' teacher, played by Julia Garner, is determined to solve the mystery, despite parents blaming her for the disappearances.
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
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Weapons movie review: horror mystery by Barbarian director Zach Cregger is oddly hypnotic
4/5 stars Advertisement One of the more powerful horror films to arrive this year, Weapons begins with a child's voice-over explaining that 17 kids have gone missing from the small US town of Maybrook. Creepier still, they all left their homes at exactly the same time – 2.17am – seemingly of their own volition. Oh, and they all attended the same class at the local junior school. Only teacher Justine (Julia Garner) and one pupil, Alex (Cary Christopher), are still accounted for. Among the townspeople outraged that the police have made no progress is construction boss Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), whose son Matthew is among the disappeared. Meanwhile, the boozy Justine is being hounded from all sides – intimidating telephone calls, graffiti on her car that reads 'witch' – as those in the community refuse to believe she has nothing to do with this eerie mystery. Advertisement Written and directed by Zach Cregger, who previously made the sly 2022 horror Barbarian, Weapons is reputedly inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, with its patchwork quilt of characters criss-crossing the San Fernando Valley.
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
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Feature of the week: Advika Mittal's story ‘The Haunting of Hollow Creek'
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