Weapons
Ironically I could probably just copy and paste the start of my review from Together for this film because it’s even more fitting after watching this. The horror genre just can’t stop cooking unabatedly, Weapons kind of feels like Prisoners and Longlegs settled down and had a baby and I love it. Easy to understand why Jordan Peele crashed out on his management team after losing out on this film. Zach Cregger manages to take everything that I didn’t love about Barbarian and create what I would argue is the best horror movie of this year.
For the first couple of perspective shifts I wasn’t totally sure how to feel. There wasn’t any point I was out of the movie, quite the opposite actually I was so into it each section that I found myself almost annoyed when it would cut away right before something crazy happened. The film quickly sells the style though with all these different perspectives meshing together giving us more context to the story. I love the fact that in a time where psychological horror has never been more popular the best new horror film is from a director obsessed with what horror is based on. These classic horror tropes such as a loud knock on the door late at night, peeking through boarded up windows, spooky basements etc. are presented in a way that feels fresh and not like something we’ve seen hundreds of times.
Another thing that may not be considered a classic horror trope but something terrifying that I think about in everyday life is someone being in my car. My favorite scene of the film is the scene that exploits this fear of mine, everything from the camera work slowly zooming in on the door and then following the same track back to the car, the creepy walk one of the “weapons” does towards the car, and the slow opening of the back car door is fantastically done and had me sucking for air trying to get a breath.
The performances are great across the board with some names I haven’t seen much from all doing great work. Julia Garner is great as the “lead”, with all different perspectives I’m not sure if there is one true leading character but if I had to choose someone it would be her. It’s also one of my favorite that we see, it kicks off the movie extremely well getting me hooked, I like seeing the side of her that has to deal with this sort of survivors guilt in a way and the hoard of angry parents that come with. Josh Brolin who is probably the biggest name tied to this film also gives a similarly great performance that I honestly can’t see anyone else delivering as well. So glad this part ended up going to him instead of Pedro Pascal after the strikes caused him to drop out. He also has a great perspective to follow, each one of the perspective shifts have something different to offer and it’s hard to pick a favorite. The dream sequence his character experiences is crazy and one of the coolest things that happen in the film in my opinion. It also ends in a fantastic even if somewhat expected scare. The scare actually comes from the hands of creepy aunt Gladys, a person that pops up a few times throughout before we get to know her. I actually find her a lot more scary before we get to know her character better, she has a very autocratic personality with a appearance that is very unnerving and her random appearances in Archer’s dream, or waving at James in the woods send shivers down my spine. All this is made possible from a chilling performance courtesy of Amy Madigan. The cast has talent in spades but it’s these three performances as well the child acting from the missing kids and Cary Christopher specifically that standout.
Although I really want to see it again I’m curious to how replay-able this film would be. Especially since a lot of what makes this film so appearing is the almost Prisoners like mystery it sets up, I could see myself losing interest more easily knowing everything that will happen. The only time I find the movie loses some steam is once the mystery is solved during Alex’s perspective, from then on it leans a lot more into the supernatural side as well as the comedy.
That being said though I had an absolute blast seeing this in theaters and it somehow surpassed my already decently high expectations. 9.5/10