It’s hard to pick the most upsetting thing happening in America right now. It’s a smorgasbord of unpleasantness, a gluttonous buffet of misery for a country with an insatiable appetite. A deep cut, “hidden gem” bit of awful is the percolating mutual distrust we have for one another. “I thought you were a better person than that” is a wildly common unspoken exchange between neighbors and loudly thunk thought at all public meetings and gatherings. Add to that the fact that “children are the future” has shifted from an optimistic outlook to something like a threat, and you get the inherent terror of writer/director Zach Cregger’s Weapons, a movie that turns everyone you know and don’t into a potential murder instrument.
Described by the filmmaker as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia set in the horror genre, a factoid possibly designed in a laboratory to make me hyperventilate with excitement, Weapons feels complex but is deceptively simple. One night, all of the children (save one) from the same third-grade class run out of their houses at 2:17 am and never come back. The film bounces around through the characters involved, centering different perspectives in “chapters” until the conclusion, which is full-on bonkers.
It starts with Ms. Gandy (Julia Garner), a teacher/alcohol-drinking enthusiast who has a penchant for bad decisions but legitimately loves children and wants to protecting them. Then it moves to Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), one of the grieving fathers. Part of the fun is not knowing who gets the spotlight next, but the trailers are clear enough that those two are central figures. The closer the film moves toward its revelations, the wackier everything gets. Just as the patron saint of modern horror, Jordan Peele, got out of comedy and into the spooky business, Cregger’s sketch comedy background means that much of the movie tightrope walks on a taut thread of silly/scary. That flavor of filmmaking is black licorice, leaving some audiences repulsed and others gleefully wolfing down eye candy until their tummies hurt.
Taste is subjective, but strongly suspect the opinion of those who strongly say Weapons “isn’t scary at all.” It has at least three scenes that invert expectations and cinematic conventions to miraculously upsetting effect. Repeatedly, cinematographer Larkin Seiple invites you to look directly at the scary thing that is lumbering forward from a far distance, giving you ample time to repeat the silent two-syllable chant of “uh oh.” And just when you think “at least it wasn’t as gory as it could have been,” it bursts some human pinatas.
Weapons doesn’t have one concrete, explicit theme or social message that it is building toward. That means some viewers may fairly critique it as “scattered.” But it feels too meticulous to be labeled as sloppy. In the same way that we are currently beset by a myriad of plagues, Weapons plays out like a wide-stretched canvas on which a host of bad thoughts can be painted. It is about the seemingly countless latent lurking dangers haunting society’s children. It is equally about the petty grievances between individuals that prevent communities from finding collective strength. It is about distrust in authorities to solve…anything… It is about rampant conspiracism. And it is also just a fun, often intentionally goofy scary movie with an “explanation” for events that predates the Brothers Grimm.
Above all else, Weapons is a proof that Cregger’s Barbarian wasn’t a fluke. It writes his name next to Peele’s and Ari Aster’s as directors who exuberantly embrace the artistic capacity of the horror genre. More please.
Grade = A
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Sreeju Sudhakaran at LatestLY says “Genre-bending, darkly disturbing, surprisingly hilarious, and always unpredictable, Weapons is that rare film that reminds you just how wild and inventive horror can be.”
Joe Lipsett at Queer.Horror.Movies says “It is only in hindsight that it becomes clear how much of the film is visceral simply for visceral’s sake. While the end of Weapons is unquestionably a hilarious, gruesome, and disgusting delight, the route to get there is, at times, unwieldy, circuitous, and maybe even pointless.”
Molly Henery at The Blogging Banshee says “The plot and effects are so gruesome and unsettling it almost feels wrong when they lead to major laughs, but it’s part of why this film is such an achievement. Be sure to see Weapons on the biggest screen possible.”