Official Website 

Plot Summary: When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.

Director: Zach Cregger

Writer: Zach Cregger

Runtime: 2 hours 8 mins

Main Cast:

• Julia Garner as Justine
• Josh Brolin as Archer
• Alden Ehrenreich as Paul
• Benedict Wong as Marcus

Review by: Samuel

What I Liked:

From the moment the story unfolds, it’s clear that the performances are a major strength. Julia Garner and Josh Brolin deliver truly incredible and believable portrayals as the film’s two leads. They ground the increasingly bizarre events with a raw emotionality that kept me invested in their characters’ fates. Josh Brolin made me believe he was a grieving father who may have taken his time with his son for granted. The way he sleeps in his son’s bed, is distracted at work, barely speaks to his wife, and is obsessed with proving Justine (Garner) is guilty all made you feel like he was trying to cope with a loss in the best way he could…even if that way was a bit toxic. 

Similarly, Garner’s portrayal as the schoolteacher with the missing classroom was striking. Like Brolin’s character, she clearly wants to find the children. Unlike him, she is being blamed for the disappearance and harassed a lot about it. She turns to alcohol to cope and spends her nights in isolation. And Garner showed this loneliness well- it doesn’t take long at all to realize that the character doesn’t have many friends at all in town and is not good at making new acquaintances. What’s interesting about her is that although she’s being (unfairly) blamed and harassed daily for her classroom’s disappearance, it never felt like her motivation to find the kids was tied to alleviating the constant berating she endured.  It’s very clear she cares about her students, sometimes to a fault, and she wants to find them because she’s worried about them. Kudos to both these actors. THey are the first we spend time with and they both made me forget I was watching a film as they drew me into their world. 

I must also mention that visually, “Weapons” is a treat. The cinematography is striking, employing long takes and creative angles that pull you directly into the unfolding chaos. It creates a sense of immediacy, almost like you’re experiencing these events in real-time, which significantly enhances the tension.

Cregger’s storytelling here is anything but conventional, and it is the star of the show. The narrative is compelling and constantly keeps you guessing. Just when you think you have a handle on things, the film swerves in an unexpected direction. The film, like “Barbarian” also switches POVs; unlike “Barbarian” it does the switch more than once. This is a cool way to tell the story as we get to see what a character may have been doing/discovering at the same time as another character. I won’t say too much about what happens in each POV, since it should be experienced first-hand, but just know as you get further into the narrative so much more unfolds that you just cannot guess. It’s the brilliance with a movie like this- the initial mystery is good enough for a trailer and to hook you, but the actual narrative opens up so much more that even with a trailer, the movie can’t be ruined for you. Trust me- you have no idea what the movie is actually about, and that is a great thing!

Refreshingly, the film also avoids relying on tired horror clichés, opting for a more nuanced and unsettling approach. Cregger has jump scares but doesn’t rely on them. The horror here is mostly something you will see coming from a mile away…and still be scared. It’s brilliant. 

Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was the film’s unexpected humor. It’s not a comedy by any means, but there are moments of dark and intentionally awkward humor that land surprisingly well, offering brief moments of levity amidst the mounting tension.

What I Didn’t Like:

Only two things. First, while the unpredictable nature of “Weapons” is largely a positive, the ending felt somewhat abrupt. After such a build-up of suspense and intrigue, the conclusion arrived rather suddenly, leaving me wanting a little more time to process the implications of what had just transpired.

The film also employs frequent shifts in perspective, which, while initially adding to the sense of disorientation and unease, occasionally felt like it hindered the pacing. Just as I was becoming fully immersed in one character’s experience, the narrative would jump to another, sometimes disrupting the flow. This wasn’t helped by the fact that one of the perspectives (the officer played by Alden Ehrenreich) was not very entertaining.