ZACH CREGGER: WEAPONS (2025)
SPOILER: The teacher isn't a witch
The sudden disappearance of most of an elementary school class provides the premise of a scary movie that's enjoyable even, a lot of the way at least, for non-fans of the genre. I]Weapons[/I] follows up its initial tragic mystery with reviews of the events from six different points of view. First is Justine (Julia Garner), the teacher. All but one of her students, seventeen kids, have walked out of their houses into the darkness at the same moment in the early morning and not been seen again. The last point of view we get to follow is that of Alex (Cary Christopher), the one student who remains and turns up for class the next day.
Maybe for some the focus on multiple viewpoints, Rashomon-style, requires patience, but for the non-horror fan it is pleasant to immerse oneself in storytelling, with the mystery and tragedy to be explored later. This also makes it possible for something provocatively odd to present itself as part of an ordinary world. To this end, the film gives us also sunny, broad exteriors, green grass, and a big colonial style house with a whilte entrance and well-framed windows. This is the house where Alex lives. Much seems to revolve around it, but we don't get to go in till later. Oh, and the introducer and occasional narrator for everything is a a student at the school (Scarlett Sher). Her soft voice expresses innocence. Whatever bad has happened, we're approaching it crabwise. Early on, I was entertained and put at ease, feeling in good hands, by the writing of Zach Cregger, who is also the director. In his debut, Barbarian, he was described (by Jarrod Jones in Paste) as "staking out fresh territory among the pop horror vanguard led by Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, and their equally warped auteur brethren." He maintains a high standard here as well. It's first of all detailed and atmospheric. As Jones says, in depicting the fictional town, Maybrook, Weapons "navigates a sprawling, jigsaw system of traumas and secrets that evokes the 'small town in peril' yarns of Stephen King (most conspicuously Salems Lot and Needful Things)." This sense of a classic "ordinary" American town is satisfyingly achieved in visual terms as well.
This is not a crime story or a mystery, but a horror story whose origins should not be known in advance. But it is mysterious, and should be for the pleasure of the unfolding. Eventually we will see things going on we might not quite grasp at first. That is, when we're following Justine, Archer (Josh Brolin, a producer), Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) a former relationship of Justine's, or James (Austin Abrams), a misfit, or Marcus (Benedict Wong), the school principal.
Justine drinks too much - and visits a huge liquor store somewhere in town more than once, as well as a bar. She has good reason to drink now, being at the heart of the trauma and seemingly with the whole town against her. Somebody paints the word 'WITCH" on the side of her car in big, red, indelible letters, and she takes it quite personally. Archer, the father of a disappeared boy, Matthew, comes after her. She is very angry because she doesn't know anything. Archer is angry too, and also experiencing nightmares. He turns out to be a bully (as is his missing son), and eager to browbeat the police for not doing their jobs. Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) has problems of his own. He is a policeman and recovering alcoholic who has a history with Justine. He has an encounter with James more than once. James is a longhaired, sleazy loser, addict, and thief. The busy period when we follow James around town, avoiding any hint of mid-film slump, is a wildly exciting, kinetic ride that takes us, willy-nilly, into the heart of darkness of the film.
But there will be more, and naturally, while the movie is by structure non-linear in its unfolding, it is nonetheless progressive and climactic. A later arrival among the cast of characters, though we never enter her viewpoint, is Gladys (Amy Madigan), an aunt Alex never met who's seemingly little known even to his parents but has recently come to stay with them. Madigan is a character actress who gets a huge chance to shine here and may well be mentioned at award season. Gladys becomes central to our experience. Also memorable is a climactic Ferris Bueller-esque run through the neighborhood backyards which becomes a thrilling, chaotic relief after we have explored all those different viewpoints. Cregger takes things up to an increasingly noisy, fever pitch in the film's latter moments, but he does not overdo, and he rounds everything out in a satisfying manner. Prepare for a varied, intriguing, eye-opening ride that leaves you with plenty of moments and incidents to ponder.
Weapons, 128 mins., opened Aug. 8, 2025. Metacritic rating: 81%.
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