Dendy Film Review - Weapons
I don’t think it should be controversial to say that we’re living in a golden age of horror. In roughly the last decade there have been several one-off highlights (It Follows (2014), The Wailing (2016) and The Invisible Man (2020) were some of my favourites). There have also been recurring names like Ari Aster, Jordan Peele and Robert Eggers – writer/directors whose consistently standout work has boosted them to fame.
For whatever reason, it seems that ambitious filmmakers with original ideas have lately found the realm of horror to be worthy ground for modern storytelling. With support from the industry, they’re elevating the genre from the relative trashiness that seemed to define it in the late 20th century.
Weapons is another fresh example of horror excellence and, following as it does from his fantastic debut feature Barbarian (2022), it confirms Zach Cregger’s position as another modern master.
Knowing as little as possible about this film before watching it is probably a good thing. So without going too much into the plot, here’s a little bit of the setup. Weapons begins with a child’s voice over delivering an account of the event that sets up the film’s central mystery: at 2:17am one night, the children of the same third grade class got up from their beds, left their homes and were not seen again. The children were captured on doorbell cameras fleeing through suburban streets with their arms outstretched in some kind of spooky Naruto run.
A police investigation follows, as does a witch hunt for someone to hang the blame on, led by the grieving parents. Both focus their attention on Justine, the missing children’s teacher. Justine, played by Julia Garner, is an alcoholic with an immature nature expressed in childlike playfulness and a refusal to conform to rules. Her flaws as well as her fearless determination, even as an ostracised member of the community, make us root for her to survive the onslaught we know is coming.
Weapons re-employs the multiple viewpoint structure that made Barbarian so surprising and hard to predict. But this time Clegger goes much further, winding the narrative around the perspectives of six different characters. With each re-telling of events, further layers are added, swiftly rounding out the story. It’s gripping and satisfying, a masterclass in intricate storytelling. Which brings me back to my original point – Weapons proves there’s no better time to be a horror fan than right now, when the genre features some of the best quality writing and directing to be seen in popular cinema.
But a huge variety in tone throughout Weapons means its appeal will likely extend beyond just horror fans. We know from Barbarian that Clegger is interested in the tried-and-true mix of horror with comedy – a combination that persists throughout Weapons, ramping up significantly when the film’s twisted villain is finally revealed. But adding to this, Weapons is also a taught and fast paced thriller, one that incorporates surrealistic terror, in your face gore, outrageous comedy violence and a heartfelt study of grief, isolation and the coping strategies of broken people.
Weapons is a different take on the threatening American neighbourhood portrayed in Barbarian. The deterioration of urban America is coming to look like a focus of Zach Cregger, a theme that should be fertile ground for further horrific tales. The huge box office success of this film suggests he’ll have the audience and production support for more films in the near future. Horror fans or not, I think we can all be happy about that.