On a quiet night in small-town Pennsylvania, 17 children woke up from their beds, ran out of their homes, and simultaneously disappeared into the darkness. None of the children have returned, but all of them were in the same elementary school class with the same teacher. This impetus is the beginning of the rated-R mystery "Weapons," and after watching it I left the movie theater in a daze of feelings.
Director and screenwriter Zach Cregger first gained mainstream recognition with his 2022 horror film "Barbarian," which I remember watching in the movie theater and which I remember rolling my eyes at. Barbarian pushes too hard blending terror and comedy, so I struggled to take the whole film seriously. "Weapons" is Zach Cregger’s latest film (his fourth feature-length film as director and screenwriter), and it also plays with blending terror and comedy.
The majority of this film unfolds in six separate chapters showing the perspective of six different people in the small town including the aforementioned elementary school teacher, a policeman, a junkie, and an angry father of a missing child. Using the multiple narrators keeps the mood of grief, resentment, and intrigue alive through much of this film. Nothing is scary or gripping in this for me, but it does have a believably spooky air that floats through the narrative like a soft poisonous cloud.
Julia Garner ("Apartment 7A," 2024) leads the "Weapons" cast as the elementary school teacher, and she plays her role well with a fragile sadness that gives way to determination. Besieged by criticism and personal attacks, her performance is the most interesting to watch as she stalks a surviving child who might have some secrets.
So the director/screenwriter clearly enjoys mixing moments of unexpected dark comedy with jarring horror violence. "Weapons" is itself, a large mixture of disparate ideas and genres. It’s an abduction story, a supernatural fairytale, a conspiracy theory, and a domestic family melodrama. With such a large mixture of tones and intentions going on, "Weapons" is a strange watch. Parts of it are fun to watch as the mystery is pieced together and characters fight for their lives, but parts of it are also clumsy or floundering exploring the loneliness of the different narrators.
During the first hour of watching, I was constantly thinking, “Why is this film trying to be another "Pulp Fiction" (1994), "Citizen Kane" (1941), or "Rashomon" (1950) spending so much time on the fragmented storytelling and shifting perspectives? Isn’t this supposed to be a horror film?” Weapons does eventually enter the horror world in the latter half of its two-hour eight-minute run time, I just felt annoyed it took so long to get there. Did the first half of the film need scene after scene full of boring dialogue? I don’t think so.
Without giving anything away, I have to say the ending is strong. And the metaphor of the older boomer generation living off the livelihood, and energy, of younger people is incisive and sharp. When the climax finally arrived, I was loving it.
Maybe the awkward combination of humor and horror will be more graceful and natural in Zach Cregger’s future films. But the few interesting moments help "Weapons" move from being terrible to at least okay.