In Weapons, some children gleefully disappear into the darkness, their teacher is blamed and becomes an alcoholic, and bad things are a’brewing–a satisfying mix for one of the most entertaining movies of the year.
Writer/director Zach Cregger, who made the divisive horror film Barbarian, is back with this oddly titled horror-thriller that defies convention as it effortlessly shifts from unsettling to terrifying to hilariously rewarding. While the marketing pitched this movie as dark, bleak, and chilling, Weapons is a surprisingly fun time best experienced in a packed theater, a ridiculously good crowdpleaser that had everyone screaming, laughing, and everything in between.
Though Cregger lands a few early jump scares, Weapons is far from being the frightfest I expected it to be. Claims of it being relentlessly “terrifying” are unfounded; in fact, the movie isn’t particularly scary–especially once Cregger’s puzzle starts to come together.
But where it lacks in constant scares it compensates with waves of unpredictable turns, reveals, and of the most gleefully entertaining horror climaxes I can recall–one that energized the theater audience in ways I haven’t seen in quite some time (well, Sinners aside).
In hindsight, the story at play is more straightforward than you’d think, but the way Cregger unspools his concoction in overlapping chapters, revealing more and more as he shifts perspective from one character to the next, works incredibly well. With each well-crafted segment tightly told and elevated by top-tier acting (Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Cary Christopher, Austin Abrams, Amy Madigan, and Benedict Wong round out the superb cast), Weapons rewards you over and over again with surprises.
Surprises that are sometimes scary, sometimes gross, and often funny.
Sure, Weapons isn’t a comedy, but like so many good horror movies it understands the collective need to laugh at being scared, to find humor in gore, to cheer when good things happen. Nothing better encapsulates this understanding than the climax, which is intense, suspenseful, and most importantly entertaining–willing to make you laugh and ultimately feel something greater, though even expressing such emotions here could be viewed as a spoiler.
The dark dredges of social media have already sought to compare Weapons to Sinners, which up until this point was near unanimously viewed as the best horror movie of the year. The two films are wildly different from one another in terms of tone, message, and approach, but I’m more interested in the similarities: both are best viewed as a community experience, where we can bond as we watch confident and talented filmmaking operating at full strength.
Bad things a’brew in Weapons, and we, the audience, benefit mightily.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.