Zach Cregger’s latest movie, Weapons, is unforgettable. And not only because it’s intense, gross, and fascinating, which it is. It’s that the premise of the movie is so smart, seductive, and deeply disturbing that we’d gladly watch a bad movie about it just to find out more. Thankfully, Cregger is able to build off his ingenious idea and deliver a constantly surprising and often horrific mystery that blends drama and scares in a way that creates something truly special.
The aforementioned premise of Weapons is, what if a schoolteacher walked into her classroom one morning and no one was there? Everyone else at the school is there. But for this one teacher, her class is missing. Making things worse, each and every student woke up at the exact same time in the middle of the night, ran out of their house, and never came back. What would that do to the teacher? What would that do to the community? What would that do to the parents? And what the heck actually happened?
Written and directed by Cregger, Weapons answers all those questions and more in an interconnected tale inspired by the sprawling epics of filmmakers like Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson. The film goes character by character through the story, with each section providing new answers as well as questions, all building to not just the reveals you are waiting for, but shocks and gore that are wholly unpredictable and super satisfying.
The first of those characters is Justine, played by Julia Garner. Justine is the teacher whose class is missing, and, of course, she becomes the scapegoat for the whole thing. Surely, she organized it. Surely, she knows something. And as more people get increasingly angry with and suspicious of her, we feel not just sympathy but a whole new kind of fear. There’s also Archer, played by Josh Brolin. He’s the father of one of the missing kids who blames Justine and decides to take the investigation into his own hands, turning up a few very unsettling revelations. Next up is Paul, played by Alden Ehrenreich. He’s a local police officer with a questionable past who takes the story into even more directions. And on and on it goes through a few other characters you meet throughout the story.
In each of these sections, Cregger gives things a slightly different energy that keeps the movie moving. He also ends them all on a bit of a cliffhanger that lingers as we go into the next section. Plus, the sections cross over, so we see events from different points of view. This not only provides great character moments and drama, but it allows us to feel more fully invested in the story and keeps us filled with anxiety. Often, we feel like we know everything about a certain person or event, but a few minutes later, it’s flipped on its head entirely. Then there are scenes and reveals that happen and don’t come back for a while, laying on even more lingering anticipation.
Each story has its fair share of jump scares and gross-outs, but those definitely become more prevalent as the film goes on. It’s clear Cregger wants us to really live with this messed-up situation and explore what it’s doing to these characters. He wants us to ponder how we would handle it. That slow burn of it all is maybe the only real criticism of Weapons. It hides its secrets for a very long time and backloads many of its more traditional horror elements. However, doing that also helps make those scenes even more shocking and satisfying. By the time answers arrive, they do so with a blood-soaked, jaw-dropping carnage that delivers sweet, sweet catharsis.
Cregger’s previous film, Barbarian, shares some of Weapons‘ DNA but had a few wild pivots that made it feel like two or even three movies slapped into one. Weapons is not that. It’s cohesive in a very assured way, with everything both fitting, and not, for just the right reasons. It’s a movie that will scare you, surprise you, make you laugh, make you cheer, and make you cover your eyes as you slowly learn how these kids disappeared. And, by the end, the fact it’s called Weapons not only makes sense, it makes the movie even more disturbing.
Co-starring Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, June Diane Raphael, and Cary Christopher, Weapons opens August 8.
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