Weapons (Review)

 Weapons is a mystery horror film directed by director Zach Cregger. It’s his second film after 2022’s Barbarian. Barbarian is also a horror film and it was one that I appreciate greatly. Weapons follows Cregger’s style and -isms if you will, non-linear storytelling, a healthy blend of horror and black comedy, and stories that follow multiple characters being traumatized from a single entity/event. 

With the release of Weapons, I can confidently say Cregger is 2 for 2 with his directorial/writer efforts. Weapons plays off as if Prisoners had a supernatural element and a sense of humor. Prisoners is one of my favorite films. I greatly appreciate a mystery film if it nails its pitch, set up, reveal, and execution. Bonus points for rewatchability despite knowing the reveal.  

The pitch for Weapons would be “17 children run off at 2:17 AM one night in a peculiar running pose and haven’t been seen again. The ones who remain are their teacher and one single student. People of the town go searching for the missing children about one month after the police investigation starts.” Fantastic pitch. The pose they run in is creepy enough. That’s quite a bit children to go missing at one time. 

It raises from questions that have itched in my mind since watching the initial trailer. Why are the kids running like that? Why 2:17? Why are they all running in unison? Why only children from one classroom? Where did they go? Why is the movie called Weapons? What does weaponry have in relation to this story? 

There’s only a couple of questions that are up to interpretation while the rest are pretty explicit in what happened. The structure of the film is pretty interesting in relation to the story. There are sections of the movie that follow specific characters during the one day where the mystery is revealed and how it resolves. 

It follows the teacher, one of the missing children’s father, the remaining kid, a crooked cop, a homeless junkie, and the school’s principal. Together, it gathers the complete narrative, answering one question of what happened at a time. It sets up neatly considering all the narrative juggling it has to do without feeling confusing. Like, “Okay, so this explains THAT but what about…?” To then give you another crumb trail to follow. I’m interested as to how this particular mystery feels upon rewatches, having known the answer. Does it intrigue all the same, or is this a mystery better the one viewing? I’ll have to (gladly) rewatch it and see about that, but I think it’ll fair pretty well! 

Without getting into spoilers, the only question up to interpretation is “Why is it called Weapons?” There isn’t some shoot out or anything. There’s one gun that’s used against other characters at one point, but it wasn’t a plot point of anything major. 

I have my own guesses. I think it has more to do with certain psychologies being weaponized. The handling of grief is weaponized here. The way the citizens of the town handle the disappearances of the children is used as a weapon against other characters. People are… weapons? Is that sophisticated enough? People are weapons??? I guess??? I have some other guesses. That’s about it as bare bone as I could get without going into spoilers. 

With the reveal of the whole mystery, I was left pretty satisfied. I couldn’t possibly have predicted where it was going. I HAVE to go out and read the script of this movie to see exactly what else Cregger put in there. It’s a movie with layers and I’m having fun peeling them back as I try and get the clearest picture.  

I also appreciate Cregger for a big thing. No matter how hard it tackles serious subject matter, the movie never feels like a slog, or takes itself too seriously. It’d be very easy to make this film into a more-serious-than-a-heart-attack type of mystery. It takes awkward situations with character interactions and makes that comedic at times. The comedy was appropriately placed. Cregger was a member of the Whitest Kids U Know crew, and really nails the comedy after years of working on his craft. 

Horror and comedy sort of follows the same formula if you think about it. Horror and comedy must have a set up, build their tension, guide the audience through that tension, and subvert it in a way to catch the audience off guard and either laugh or get scared. He’s nailed both if you ask me. 

Weapons - I recommend it. Zach Cregger has officially reached the point of “I’ll see whatever film this person makes, so questions asked” for me. It’s a hell of a blast.