[8]
After his strong debut film, 2022’s Barbarian, writer/director Zach Cregger returns with a sophomore effort as good or better. Weapons starts off with a compelling mystery — why did seventeen school children, all in the same class, suddenly get out of their beds at 2:17 in the morning, run out their front doors, and disappear into the night? Cregger then implements Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon Effect,’ telling us the first half of the story from several different characters’ points of view: the school teacher (Julia Garner), a parent (Josh Brolin), a cop (Alden Ehrenreich), a druggie/thief (Austin Abrams), the school’s principal (Benedict Wong), and finally, the lone boy remaining from the class that disappeared (Cary Christopher). All these characters’ stories intertwine leading up to the climax of the movie — and the full explanation for what happened to the missing children.
At just over two hours long, Weapons feels a little long to me. Each character’s story, told one after the other, builds to an interesting moment, but as soon as that moment is reached, the film starts all over again from a new character’s perspective. This story structure kept deflating the film’s rising tension and annoyed me. To be honest, halfway through this movie, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it at all. I’m still not sure if we need all the time spent with Garner’s, Brolin’s, and Ehrenreich’s characters. The meat of the story doesn’t really come to the surface until we spend time with Abrams, Wong, and Christopher.
But Weapons is one of those rare movies where the last half is so satisfying, that it almost erases the sins of the first half. Once all the characters’ stories begin intersecting and a new character named Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) is introduced, the film really takes off and delivers in spades. There’s some gore, there’s a generous amount of dark humor, and there’s a smidge of heart. The cast is all around terrific, but Ehrenreich, Abrams, and Madigan are the standouts. Abrams is new to most audiences, but his character has a brazen, devil-may-care attitude that gives the movie a jolt in the arm when it needs it. I’m especially happy to see Ehrenreich rebound from his unfairly maligned turn in Solo: A Star Wars Story (that movie’s failure is in no way his fault). And I’ve always wanted to see more of Amy Madigan in the movies, and maybe after this splashy role, I will.
Apart from how long the film is and how much unnecessary time is spent with some of the characters, I also don’t care for the lighting (or lack thereof). I wish cinematographers would rely less on light-sensitive cameras and more on good old-fashioned lighting techniques. The darkest scenes in this movie are gray at best. I miss deep, impenetrable black in movies, especially horror movies. This ‘washed out’ digital look just isn’t as pretty.
Gripes aside, Weapons is another winner from a fresh new voice in the horror genre. This movie is what originality looks and feels like. The less you know, the more you might enjoy it. I suspect this one has a shot at becoming a horror classic.
With Justin Long and Sara Paxton. And a nice shout-out to the movie Willow. Also, is it just me, or is Warner Brothers giving Disney a middle finger with the T-shirts worn by Benedict Wong and his character’s husband in this movie?