Spoilers! Why this 'Weapons' villain is summer's most disturbing baddie
Imagine a malevolent mashup of Little Orphan Annie, the Joker and the wicked old lady from 'Hansel and Gretel.' That would be Gladys, the most disturbing baddie of this summer movie season.
We've seen some antagonistic doozies at the cinema the past few months. Planet-eating Galactus. That new mutant "Jurassic" dinosaur. A returning Fisherman. Dog-napping bad boyfriend Lex Luthor. Heck, even Death himself. But in director Zach Cregger's 'Weapons,' Amy Madigan is cunning, despicable, unrecognizable and in severe need of a fashion makeover as the terrifying Gladys.
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What is the new movie 'Weapons' about?
Like his last horror standout, 2022's 'Barbarian,' Cregger pummels your expectations with 'Weapons' and flips the movie you're watching into something completely. Told from six different characters' perspectives, the plot centers on 17 children from the same third-grade class who wake up at 2:17 in the morning, run from their houses (with their arms jutting out like they're pretending to be airplanes) and disappear into the night.
Because all the missing children were from her class, Justine (Julia Garner) becomes the town pariah and her story intertwines with other characters, including her cop ex Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), the embattled school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), and Archer (Josh Brolin), an angry father who wants the truth about his missing boy.
But what seems like it might be a metaphorical scary movie about kids' safety in school, or a cautionary tale of moms, dads and mob rule, gradually shifts. By the time Gladys shows up in full, the movie becomes a fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm sort. (So modern, it might be considered Bros Grimm.)
Who is the villain in 'Weapons'?
And Gladys is a sight, with large glasses, a wardrobe of reds, purples and greens, garish lipstick, and candy-colored crimson hair with curls and bowl-cut bangs. Madigan's ghoulish persona appears to be a cross between a Golden Girl and Pennywise the clown, but is actually a witch.
Revealed to be the aunt of Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the only kid from Justine's class who didn't go missing, Gladys is staying with Alex's parents for a while. But actually, she's there to suck the life force out of the mom and dad. Gladys also has a way – through using a stick, personal items and a bell – to mind-control people, turning who she wants into weapons and others into targets.
Madigan is an ingenious person to cast as Gladys because it's the kind of role she's never had. She's the understanding wife of 'Field of Dreams,' the scrappy tomboy mechanic in 'Streets of Fire,' the loving aunt in 'Gone Baby Gone.' Not the crazy aunt/spell-casting kook who's going to be film fans' top Halloween costume this year.
It's not until the makeup and wig comes off do you realize that this witchy maniac is Madigan, all freaky-deaky when keeping the missing kids in the basement of the Lillys' house (so she can seemingly drain them of their life force) and making Alex do her bidding by threatening his parents. 'I can make them eat each other if I want to,' Gladys warns him.
What happens in the ending of 'Weapons'?
Justine survives Gladys turning Marcus into a killing machine who tries to murder her, and she and Archer figure out that Alex's house is where the children are. But it's Alex who ends up the real hero, using Gladys' magic against her, weaponizing the kids and siccing them on Gladys. In the film's darkly hilarious climax, the witch and her pursuers crash through people's windows, living rooms and yards in a bonkers chase that winds up with the children literally tearing her to gory pieces.
It's a cathartic – and downright rousing – denouement, though what's really interesting about 'Weapons' is how Cregger teases his villain before she's even really a major part of the movie. A frightening red-haired figure with a ghoulish smile is seen and teased in nightmare sequences and strange visions early on, so we get eerie 'glimpses' at Gladys before we see her.
And when Justine is being hounded by townspeople early in the film, Archer writes 'WITCH' in big red paint on the side of her SUV. Even though she's the victim of what one might call a witch hunt, it wryly gives away the story's true villain.
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