WEAPONS Review: Zach Cregger’s Sinister Sophomore Horror Is No Slump
This review does not contain spoilers for Weapons.
Sophomore features can be a tough beast to tame, even for the most gifted of filmmakers. For every Midsommar, Titane or Bring Her Back, there’s a [insert your most hated second directorial feature here, we're not evoking the wrath of horror franchise fans!] The pressure to follow up a strong debut is applied tenfold when said debut remains one of the most beloved horror-thrillers of the decade so far, launched off the back of its own equally mysterious marketing campaign. Needless to say, all eyes are on Barbarian director Zach Cregger, whose Weapons, now playing in theaters, could either cement him as a one-hit wonder or one of the freshest voices working in modern horror. Thankfully, it’s the latter.
You’ve all seen the logline by now – one night, at exactly 2:17am, almost twenty children from across the city of Maybrook get out of bed and run off into the night. It’s up to the community, including Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), the homeroom teacher of the vanished kids, and grieving parent Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), to uncover the sinister secrets of the disappearance and who, or what, is behind it. In a similar vein to PTA’s Magnolia or Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Weapons unfurls its tapestry of terror across six ‘chapters’, each following the lives of Maybrook citizens related to the incident, whether directly or tangentially. While the vignette structure doesn’t always feel confident in its narrative purpose, it grants Weapons a hugely effective ebb and flow of tension and relief, as every segment ushers in a whole new view of the story and gives all of Weapons’ core set of players a chance to shine, even if their story doesn’t initially seem to hold as much weight.
Each member of the cast are bringing their A-game to a film that lives or dies on audience investment – while Brolin and Garner are obvious standouts, it’s also thanks to a scene-stealing performance from an orange-wigged Amy Madigan (who will be topping some listicles in the near future, let’s just say that), Cary Christopher’s devastating vulnerability as little Alex, the sole boy left behind, and Alden Ehrenreich’s barely-tethered machismo as police officer Paul that make the world of Weapons feel fully fleshed and grounded, despite going to some very outlandish places in the latter half. In addition, Austin Abrams’ turn as sweaty, strung-out junkie James delivers some of the film’s biggest, and darkest, laughs, while making the upcoming Cregger-Abrams collab of Resident Evil an even more exciting prospect than it initially was.
Far from quell the oppressive atmosphere crafted by Weapons’ steel blue-tinted spookiness and thumping, killer score from Ryan and Hays Holladay, Creggers’ comedy chops as a founding member of comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’Know makes Weapons a twisted horror-thriller that’s at times as hilarious as it is horrifying, but the film undoubtedly works best when exploring its darkest corners. Weapons carries over that uneasy sense of suburban sickness from Barbarian, languishing in the creeping dread that untold nightmares could, and probably are, unfolding behind neatly-painted front doors and in basements built for boring appliances. The film's most disturbing scenes take place adjacent to symbols of domestic mundanity, like cans of soup and a child’s unmade bed, modelling an uncanny bastardization of the safe space that reflects a paranoid modernity also seen recently in films like Longlegs or the aforementioned Bring Her Back – even (sometimes especially) in your own home, you are not safe. The nightmare sequences in particular are bone-chilling, weaponizing tension and silence to deliver some of the best, most cathartic jumpscares this side of The Exorcist III. Weapons is a film that begs for big screen viewing, not least because you’ll want to see your neighbor’s popcorn go flying once the film delivers its highly-anticipated money shot.
Speaking of reveals (don’t worry, no details here), those who have revelled in the enigma of Weapons’ mysterious marketing campaign will be pleased to know that even post-reveal this is a film completely disinterested in holding its viewers’ hands and guiding them to easy answers. However, some of Weapons’ biggest questions are left unanswered in a way that’s more frustrating than fulfilling. While most horror fans would be under the agreement that ‘less is more’, sometimes more is needed to contextualize the stakes of a story and add weight to the scares. Even with a hefty 129 minute runtime in the rearview mirror, parts of Weapons still end up feeling annoyingly underexplored and rushed, as if the film itself has stopped caring about the world it has created.
These gripes are more easily overlooked, however, by the time the wheels of Weapons come off completely and it goes careening with batshit abandon into a thunderous, jaw-dropping ending that is already set to be an all-timer in the canon of what-the-fuckery. In a year that has already blessed us horror fans with a feast of box office bangers like Sinners, 28 Years Later and Together, Weapons is the cherry (or can of chicken noodle soup) on top. See you on opening night for Cregger’s Resident Evil.
