‘Weapons’ is Scary and Funny as Hell

I was both surprised and worried when Weapons opens with one of the more chilling montages in recent memory. If you’ve seen the trailers or any marketing you know that the movie centers on the disappearance of kids, but rather than show you this as standard set up, we get a montage of the kids running away, on that random night at 2:17am, with a kid narrating as if reading a fairy tale, right away. It’s eerie and creepy and it had me excited, but also hesitant. We’re getting this right off the bat? The thing every trailer, poster, and commercial centered on? Where can we possibly go from here?

Without saying too much, those feelings were well and gone when the credits rolled. I really enjoyed Zach Cregger’s first horror film, Barbarian, but I think I loved Weapons more. This is a fun, creepy, sad, hilarious ride that was not what I expected at all yet still delivered.

The movie actually begins a month after the disappearance of Ms. Gandy’s (the wonderful Julia Garner) entire class of kids, and the entire town of Maybrook is in despair. None of the children have been found, there are no leads, no closer to figuring out what happened and why. The closest thing the town thinks it has is that Ms. Gandy has something to do with it, making her a victim as the town berates her with questions and accusations, to the point where someone paints “WITCH” on her car.

At first we focus on Ms. Gandy, as she struggles with what’s going on and eventually, begins to do some investigating herself. But then the movie shifts the focus on another person in Maybrook, and this pattern continues for most of the film. It’s very non linear, similar to (spoiler alert for Barbarian) Cregger’s previous movie and how it switches characters halfway through the film. Only this time he does it with multiple people, including Alden Ehrenreich’s goofy but well meaning police officer Paul, and Josh Brolin’s Archer, one of the parents of the missing kids.

There are more but to get into this would really be a spoiler. Which absolutely sucks for me because these are some of the big highlights of the whole movie. It’s a very unexpected way to go about this story. We jump back and forth in time, but each piece (or chapter?) does reveal more of what’s going on. It was a super unique and great way to keep you hooked. Not only do you get more of what’s really going on in this town, but you are connecting the dots and guessing where each of these match. I thought it was awesome, but I could see it frustrating some people who just want to see how things unfold the standard way. I thought I was going to get there at some points, but each piece was so engaging and had me guessing.

It helps that the cast absolutely kills it. Julia Garner (she’s having a great year!) really fleshes out Ms. Gandy. You get the sense she is a good teacher who cares about these kids, but that doesn’t mean her life and how she’s dealing with everything going on around her isn’t messy. Josh Brolin is also fantastic. The loss of his kid is very clearly infecting every part of his life, and we see that in his performance well before he outwardly tells us (a small sequence that bugged me). Alden Ehnrenreich as a sort of goofy and frustrated cop is good too, and he really gets to chew the scenery as the film goes on. Benedict Wong as the school principal is also great, and I unfortunately have to leave it at that. There’s another standout performance that might have been my favorite and I would love to gush about, but I can’t right now, and that sucks! But everyone is really good, which is a big help considering every character is, disappointingly, a little surface level.

What really helps is Cregger’s fantastic direction. Holy shit man. You feel his confidence has really grown since Barbarian. This is a horror movie after all, and Cregger is serving up a buffet for the audience. There’s tension throughout the entire movie, joined by a really eerie atmosphere (helped by the fact that Maybrook could be any U.S suburb). But there’s also some really creepy moments, both quick and unflinchingly long, and some really good jump scares. A lot of it had me either leaning forward or sinking back into my seat.

Maybe the most surprising weapon in Weapons is the humor. This movie did scare me but at the same time this is the hardest I laughed in a movie all year (haven’t seen The Naked Gun yet). What’s crazy is how blended in together it is with the movie’s scariest and crazy moments, especially its insane finale that is going to rank as one of best moments of the year. I was laughing my ass off only to have my jaw drop within seconds of each other.

There’s so much more I want to say but even now I feel like I’ve said too much. Weapons was not at all what I expected, but I loved it anyway. I do think the mystery and the way it goes about it may not be satisfying for some viewers, but to me I thought it was engaging and fun. It’s scary and hilarious, and I’m not sure anybody else has juggled those two so seamlessly like Cregger does here. It results in one of the best horror movies of the year.