Weapons Review: Not Your Usual Horror, Works Only If You Are Patient With It
Weapons, directed and written by Zach Cregger had one of the most amazing promotional campaigns seen in this year for any film. The horror follows the story of a small town where kids ran out of their homes on their own accord never to be seen again. The trailer focused on how these kids seemed freer in the dark night running away from their families. However, the actual film is nothing close to what anyone would have expected. Visually stunning Weapons has an eerie tone to it with a background score as good as that of Nosferatu.
Stars 3.5/5
The film begins with the narration of a small child, setting up the tone of the story as well as the situation around the incident. She reveals that one morning while the day was as ordinary as one could expect, one class had 17 kids missing. No one showed up to the class that day expect one boy Alex and the teacher Justine Gandy. While the teacher would be the usual suspect if this were a usual crime thriller, the cops and the parents in the town are baffled when ring light cameras and security details of their own homes revealed how the kids on the previous night had just run out of their homes on their own.
17 kids exactly at 2:17 in the night walk out of their homes and into the night never do be heard from again. The runtime explores not just the incident, but what happened before and after it through different characters and their perspectives. Justine Gandy, a teacher with more than a few personal issues gets targeted by the entire town for having done something to the kids who went missing. Archer Graff played by Josh Brolin is a grieving father of one of those missing kids. He sets out to uncover the truth about the incident when cops do nothing about it (according to him). Alex played by Cary Christopher is the only child who returns to class the next day and his story uncovers the truth in parts.
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The makers use the background score and lack of it to drive a lot of the story forward, which also amplifies the horror aspect of the film. Without it, Weapons is goofy and funny more than a few times. It does ease up the horror parts of the film, but with the story following more than four-five characters the runtime feels longer than it needs to be. The story too drags for long until any real horror or thriller moments take place in the second half. The low number of jump scares make them more effective, but it the treatment of the film makes you question the genre of it.
Despite supernatural elements at the center, the horror film explores more including mob mentality, peer pressure, bullying, drug abuse, addiction, loneliness, the working conditions of teachers and much more. Josh Brolin, Julia Garner are one of the few adults who actually make sense in the film throughout the runtime and amid the non linear storytelling they also become the focal point. All actors continue to showcase their best performances without missing a beat as the genre of the film jumps between moments.
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Overall, Weapons isn’t your usual horror with ghosts that haunt you nor is it a psychology horror that explores a parasite taking over your life, but something in between. The film will test you as it tries to breaks your social media catered short attention span.
Cover Image: Instagram