‘Weapons’: A Horrifying, Harrowing & Hysterical Ensemble Piece

The modern anxieties of suburbia lay the foundation for Weapons, the horrifically hysterical sophomore effort from director Zach Cregger (Barbarian). Owing to a phenomenal ensemble cast, an airtight script and a real sense of craft that adds to its delightfully dreadful atmosphere, Cregger’s film manages the sublime feat of being a horror film with real thematic and emotional depth while also being a riotous time at the movies.

Weapons opens in the sleepy, all-American town of Maybrook after it’s been rocked by a tragedy. One night, for no discernible reason, 17 of the 18 children in teacher Justine Gandy’s (Julia Garner) class disappear into the night at 2:17am with their arms outstretched and never come back.

After its deeply unnerving and intriguing cold open, Weapons is able to reveal the first trick it has up its sleeve: a fascinating structure. Rather than follow a single character for the entire runtime, it’s an explicitly chaptered film that shows how different members of the community react to this terrible event in their lives, and what happens when they attempt to investigate them.

Because of this choice, Weapons is able to expertly deploy its ensemble cast to explore the different elements of its narrative. It opens with the perspective of Justine, played by a characteristically great Julia Garner. Cregger himself has described the film himself as “Hereditary meets Magnolia”, and it’s easy to see where it takes cues from the latter in its intertwining of multiple characters into a wider narrative tapestry.

What happens when 17 children all disappear on the same night?

With these characters, Weapons begins to slowly reveal what’s at the heart of his film. Justine is trying to talk with the last remaining student from her class Alex (a truly sensational child performance from Cary Christopher), while also being branded an unfairly maligned target of bereaved parents of the missing children like Archer, portrayed by an excellent Josh Brolin.

While Archer struggles to find meaning in life after the disappearance of his child, Justine finds solace in her ex-boyfriend Paul (a hilarious Alden Ehrenreich) who’s having a bad long weekend dealing with a junkie, James (an even funnier Austin Abrams).

The film paints an intricate portrait of this fractured community, all while Cregger continuously builds tension to remarkable effect. You’re always wondering what is actually going on in this town, especially when paired with the film’s regularly bone-chilling visuals courtesy of a collaboration with Larkin Seiple.

That’s also what makes Weapons hilarious, and probably the funniest film about disappearing children ever made. The humour never completely undercuts the tension, but serves as momentary cartharsis from the otherwise bleak subject matter with some sincerely hilarious moments. Brolin has a scene that encapsulates the film’s MO to a tee in a surreal dream sequence that switches from emotional sincerity to terror and then to humour in about a minute, and it all flows naturally.

Weapons strikes a delicate balance of humour and horror

The fact that the humour never compromises the movie’s tension is critical to the function of Weapons, which is regularly quite upsetting. Across its runtime, the film investigates what happens when those close to us are lost, the potential for violence in all people and how modern technology doesn’t really make us any safer, but more aware of the potential dangers of the world. It’s also a film that could only be made in a country where Trump has been President twice – a take that I hope makes sense if you’ve seen the movie!

Weapons avoids providing a big thesis statement on one single thing, and seems most interested in telling a twisty, fun horror story before anything else. It certainly succeeds in that with its wonderful mix of fear and funniness that eventually culminates in one of the best horror movie endings in recent memory. Nonetheless, it brought plenty of interesting ideas about suburbia and the American consciousness to the fore that have been turning over in my head since watching.

It sets up Weapons to be an immediate horror smash hit thanks to its spectacularly unsettling premise and deep understanding of how horror and comedy can co-exist. In anyone else’s hands, it could be a deeply serious film with no easy answer regarding collective tragedy – and at times, Weapons is that. But it puts itself above so many other horror movies by knowing exactly when to lean into either one of its tones, and carve out a place for itself as one of the best, most entertaining horror films of the 21st century so far.

★★★★½

Weapons is in cinemas now.