Zach Cregger exploded onto the horror scene in 2022 with Barbarian, and he’s delivered a sprawling horror epic with Weapons.
One night at exactly 2:17 AM in the town of Maybrook, PA, 17 kids walked out of their homes and disappeared. All the children were in the same class at school, and only Alex Lily (Cary Christopher) didn’t disappear. Their teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), draws the ire of the town as they struggle to comprehend what happened. Justine tries to figure out what happened, as does the father of one of the missing kids, Archer Graff (Josh Brolin). The movie is divided into chapters that follow each character, and it’s a bit of a Rashomon, as you see events from different angles and slowly gather more clues about what lies behind the strange events unfolding. Weapons is more of a slow burn than Barbarian, which hit the gas shortly into the movie and never let up with the bizarreness, but if you are patient and on the movie’s wavelength, like I was, then it is a highly satisfying experience full of gnarly violence, incredible acting, and, shockingly, some laugh-out-loud dark comedy. The tonal shifts and ultimate reveal of what lies behind everything may not resonate with some people, but I was fully invested in the movie’s slow-building weirdness and absurd comedy moments. It also does what many great horror films do, which is to use a fantastical situation to make social commentary. The way the town reacts to the tragedy evokes the aftermath of situations like school shootings, but the movie handles it with deftness, and it’s not overtly commenting, yet it’s there if you want to dig a little deeper.
As mentioned, the cast is excellent across the board, and all the characters feel like real, fully fleshed-out individuals with a history in the town and with each other. Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, and Cary Christopher are the standouts, but Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, and Benedict Wong are also fantastic. The person who steals the show, though, is Amy Madigan, who is closely tied to the events unfolding in the movie. She delivers a creepy, disturbing performance that is likely Oscar-worthy, but we all know that horror is rarely recognized during award season. I got Stephen King vibes from a lot of the characters and the town, and it’s similar to something like Salem’s Lot, where a seemingly quaint small town slowly devolves into a horror show. There are some great moments of bloody violence if you’re a gorehound, and there’s a great mix of slow-building dread and over-the-top horror.
Barbarian was great, and Cregger cements himself with Weapons as one of the best new voices in horror, up there with the likes of Jordan Peele. If you are on its weird, creepy wavelength, this is one of the best horror movies of the year.
