Zach Cregger
Weapons

I remember that, on an afternoon of utter nothingness, I decided to watch a horror movie, and my choice fell on Barbarian, an interesting film that people were raving about. The movie didn’t entirely convince me: intriguing in the first half, it lost itself in the second; nothing memorable, at least for me, so much so that I never would have thought that director and screenwriter Zach Cregger would become a star in the scream queen genre. His second film, Weapons, released in theaters less than three months ago, is in fact one of the best I’ve seen in recent years; and I’m not the only one who thinks so, since the film was a substantial success with both critics and at the box office.

The synopsis: in a small town in Pennsylvania, at 2:17 in the morning, all the children in an elementary school class run out of their homes and vanish into thin air; all except one, Alex. The police offer him a Cola and interrogate him, getting nowhere. The parents of his classmates, as desperate as they are furious, identify the likely culprit as the class’s teacher, Justine (Julia Garner), a young woman who already had to leave another school for inappropriate behavior. As she suffers acts of vandalism and threats that increase her paranoia and sense of victimhood, Justine tries to speak with Alex, but the boy pushes her away and won’t open the door to his house—a very mysterious house. Meanwhile, Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), father of the missing Matthew, realizes the hapless local police will never solve the case and decides to start his own investigation. This leads to an intriguing and multifaceted plot, where the stories of Justine, Archer, the police officer Paul (Justine’s ex, with unpleasant family problems), the school principal Marcus (strict but fair and elegant), the young addict James, and Alex himself all intersect.

Cregger revives the mystery film structure that already characterized Barbarian, but here he creates a much more complex, mature, and successful work. Weapons is a great example of hyperlink cinema, that is, a type of film where the same story is told from the different perspectives of various characters, and each one adds a piece to the puzzle and brings you closer to unraveling the mystery, thus keeping your attention from ever waning. This is a film that skillfully alternates between lighter, more comedic scenes and sequences of even extreme violence—but, importantly, never gratuitous and always purposeful. The film includes some moments of pure terror, such as Justine’s visit to the deserted school (those who have seen it know what I’m talking about). Effective as a well-rounded work, effective as a horror: after watching it in the theater, I rewatched it last night with a friend and I was still pretty scared.

Originally, Weapons featured a completely different cast, changed after some production delays and the Hollywood strikes of 2023; in any case, the film is wonderfully acted, with a great Garner and a Josh Brolin who is perfect and polished in his usual role as the gruff tough guy with a tender heart. A round of applause also goes to the young actor Cary Christopher, who captures Alex’s innocence and his desire to live his life as a child despite the pressure from the police, the press, and... I won’t spoil what else. Fun fact: Justin Long, who played one of the main characters in Barbarian, also makes a cameo in this film.

It’s too soon to make final judgments, since it’s October and many horror films are being released right now, but as of now, this is my horror film of the year. And I can assure you that you might really enjoy it, even if you’re not a fan of the genre. A must-see.