Weapons (2025)

Last night at 2:17 am every child from Mrs. Gandy's class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark ...and they never came back

That's the frightening premise which kicks off this folk horror tale taking place in a small town from writer/director Zach Cregger (Barbarian) and things just get crazier from there as we witness the aftermath of tragic incident from various POV's.  We follow various characters directly OR indirectly involved with this incident including Mrs. Gandy herself (Julia Garner), one of the missing kids' father (Josh Brolin), a local police officer (Alden Ehrenreich), and the school's principal (Benedict Wong) among a select few others.  And what results is one of the most buzzed about new original movies of the year, let's see if it lives up to the buzz....

Host: Geoff Gershon
Edited By Ella Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

Transcript

WEAPONS – 2025

Directed by Zach Cregger

Starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenrich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, Cary Christopher, Toby Huss, Whitmer Thomas, Callie Schutters, June Diane Raphael, Scarlett Sher, Jason Turner, Sara Paxon, Justin Long, and Amy Madigan

Genre:  Horror Mystery (Audio clip)

Having seen and liked (but not loved) writer/director Zach Cregger's well-liked debut Barbarian from a couple of years ago, I came into this with some anticipation but skepticism as well. While I found that AirBNB-gone-bad horror thriller to be a fun watch overall, I felt a bit....REMOVED by the very conceit which so many were praising it for. Cregger's decision to jump around within the overall narrative timeline and change POV's several times was a novel approach but also diffused the tension as far as I was concerned....and I heard that he took a similar approach with this story, only making it even more sprawling with POV's of even MORE characters? :o 

And THAT'S the thing which several filmmakers in this post-Nolan/Tarantino filmscape (INCLUDING Nolan & QT themselves sometimes recently, I might add) can't seen to grasp: not EVERY type of story is served well by fracturing the narrative! Visceral horror as a genre for one thing....building the tension in sequence is usually the best approach. I mean can you IMAGINE if John Carpenter had taken this approach with The Thing 40+ years ago?? 😆 Yes it might very well have cleared up some dangling threads about WHOM that alien was inhabiting AND when....but it would have destroyed that classic's tension and definitely ruined its perfect ending. Well gratefully, some hints about the structure of Weapons along with the basic overall setup was ALL I knew in advance of seeing this - the trailers were intentionally vague (maybe WB learned its lesson from Sinners?) - and I'm pleased to say that Cregger's second feature truly DID live up to the hype. :) 

Despite its fragmented structure, this horror thriller never loses momentum....infact, it BUILDS it very adeptly. We're jumping from segment to segment from a different character's POV but in a manner which reveals the mystery, peels the onion, etc. 🫡 We spend some time with each of these folks, get to know them a bit....but JUST enough to care for them (or not) and then as we move to the next character's story, it feels organic. We're still tense, we still curious, and we want MORE....And not to spoil anything, but it also ends in spectacular fashion....

I adore the ending, I love the way it wraps things up tightly, leaving virtually no dangling threads - the movie is JUST over two hours with not an ounce of fat. And the cast is very strong across-the-board....with the standouts being Julia Garner as Justine, the beleaguered teacher of this now-missing class of 17 students who's struggling to keep herself sane (and sober), Alden Ehrenreich as Paul, somewhat bumbling local cop who also battling some demons of his own, and especially young newcomer Cary Christopher who delivers an impressively tricky (often wordless) performance as Alex, the ONE 3rd grader from this class which didn't disappear.

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

First things first, Weapons is blessed with an effectively moody score – at times synthy, at other times orchestral – which is sometimes dramatic but more often just unsettling.  Scraping violins, off-kilter percussion – it more than does the job and it comes to us from composing brothers Ryan & Hays Holliday AND Zach Cregger himself. (Audio clip) 

But as far as I’m concerned, the musical highlight occurs during the VERY haunting opening sequence when the overall set-up for the movie – the inciting incident – is effectively presented to us visually via montage and with haunted voice-over from Scarlett Sher who is presented as a child from this school.  Playing over all of this is a a dreamy easy-tempo ditty from the late, great George Harrison….yes the Liverpool-born guitarist and songwriter from The Beatles who eventually developed into quite the memorable solo artist as well with his own distinct voice.  And this song comes from his first solo album POST-Beatles break-up…1970’s “All Things Must Pass.”  It’s a pitch-perfect accompaniment to a critical sequence which definitely sets the tone for the rest of the film which follows – the song is “Beware of Darkness.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film): 

I honestly can’t think of any particular talent which was wasted in the production of this movie and I even loved how adeptly the marketing was handled for an original R-rated movie NOT based on IP….nothing was really spoiled which is pretty unusual.  And it pleases to me to no end that this has been a surprise box office smash.  What concerns me however is in light of its success, there is now much talk and speculation from not only the Interwebs but the director HIMSELF….that the logical next step will be for him to produce/direct a sequel OR prequel to this film’s story.  Nope…nuh-uh…not necessary, THAT could be a waste of Cregger’s talent.  It’s a very self-contained story and beyond that, the overall plot BARELY holds together when you really start to think about it – I mean when you think about WHERE these missing kids MIGHT have ended up?? Yeah best not to push too much thought into….why expose that further with a continuation of this story.  My advice to Zach – not that he’s listening – would be to RESIST that temptation and just keep developing original stuff.  Here’s hoping that he does..

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Now about that ending….or to be more specific the NUTSO final set-piece which leads into it….well look even this movie has now been out a couple of weeks, I will only MILDLY spoil it – two distinct sounds in succession, the snap of a twig and then a gasp, that’s it!  It’s definitely one of THE best, most satisfying “shit just got real” moments in recent cinema! 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

This is top-flight screenwriting on Cregger's part and it's also served well by his top-flight direction as well - the story starts to feel increasingly chaotic as it goes and gratefully his camera with great help from DP Larkin Seiple (Everything, Everywhere, All At Once) is always EXACTLY where it needs to be. The movie doesn't rely on jump scares but when it delivers them, they land. ;) SO much of this story starts to resemble an ongoing chase, even though the overall location of this ONE small town never seems to change. Cregger definitely demonstrates some action chops here though make no mistake: this IS a grisly folk horror tale at its core.  For further delivering on the strong promise from his first feature into an apparent new breakout genre auteur along the lines of M. Night Shyamalan or Jordan Peele….Zack Cregger is the MVP. 

Final Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5 

Overall this is just a tense, disturbing, often funny, and altogether mesmerizing tale which feels as if it could have been ripped from the pages of Stephen King or based upon an episode of "The Twilight Zone"....but the fact that it's a true original makes it all the more impressive.

Now Playing in Theaters

And that ends another TRANCE-INDUCING review!