TL;DR – This is one of the most ‘messed’ up films that I have seen, the kind of film where you cross your arms in a vain attempt to put a barrier between you and the screen.  

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Weapons Review –

Sometimes you sit down and realise you were fundamentally unprepared for the film you were about to see. That you were prepared for the horror that was coming, well, you thought you were prepared. You crossed your arms, hoping to shield yourself from what was on screen, but nothing could prepare you for Weapons.

So, to set the scene, in a small leafy town in the countryside of America, you can find Maybrook and its elementary school. It is a quaint place where nothing much ever happens, that is, until one day Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) walked into her third-year class to find it empty of every student bar one, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). One month later, the police are no closer to finding what happened to those seventeen children, and the town is tearing itself apart looking for them. There must be a focus on all that rage, guilt, and sorrow, and unfortunately for Justine, she is that focus. So, as the town focuses their rage on her, the question remains: What happened to the kids at 2:17 in the morning on that fateful day?

Okay, before I get into my review proper, I do want to point out that if there is anything in the above that interests you, then it would be a good idea to stop reading here [you can come back later] and see the movie with as little information as possible. When you have no idea what is coming, you can not prepare for it, and thus it hits you much harder. I will also say, without getting into specifics because of spoilers, that there are reasons why we have the warning bolded above. If that is something that is important to you, then you may want to investigate before watching.

Getting into the review, there is a lot I want to say about this film, but I will first take some time to explore the production. Congratulations to the location scout for finding the perfect town to film this in. It needed to be big enough where you could feel a bunch of kids could be hidden there, but not so big that it would be national news. You need enough industry and commercial zones to make car chases interesting, but also not so big that there are no suburbs for the kids to run through. Then we have the cinematography, and can I say that this is some of the best work I have seen all year. There is a flow and movement of the film that comes from the editing and the camera work on set, and this film would not be nearly as good without it. There is a reason you get the guy who worked on  Everything Everywhere All at Once in this film, and it was the right choice.

Then we get to the music and sound design. I have never been as unnerved by sound design as I have in this film. Nothing has quite weaponised silence quite like this, where the sound of someone moving in your seat is enough to send chills up your spine because you are so invested in what is happening on the screen. You will also hate car doors for the rest of your life. One of the things I found the most interesting was how funny this film was in places. My first encounter with writer/director Zach Cregger was as a comedic performer and producer back in the 2000s, when some friend would show you a rip of a weird TV show, only seen in America. The world before YouTube took off was a bizarre one, folks. The way that some of the more horrific parts of the film are also some of the funniest, without cheapening the process, was fascinating to watch.

We then must give it up for the cast, because goodness, was this a difficult film to get the tone right. This is amplified by the movie’s structure being based around the characters rather than traditional acts. Julia Garner has a challenging job of playing someone who has to be both sympathetic and wildly out of control in places. I am not entirely sure whether Julia Garner is a good person or not, whether she is kind or a walking disaster in slow motion. Josh Brolin is there to bring the abject anguish, Alden Ehrenreich the weird energy, Amy Madigan is profoundly odd, and Benedict Wong is a calming force of nature. However, I have to give my highest praise to Cary Christopher. The kid is not even in double digits yet, but he nailed one of the most challenging roles I have seen this year.

It was interesting being in a room watching this with other people, because you could tell people had profoundly different reactions to the film. I was personally more fascinated by the moments when I was not processing the horror. But having some time away from the movie to explore my feelings about it, I did start to see some issues. It is a little too dependent on jump scares, fool me once, shame on me, fool me several more times, I will still jump out of my chair, but a little less each time. After the opening, there is a really slow burn before anything happens, and I can feel there are people who won’t get through that chunk. It also pads out the ending a touch more than it should. While the vibes were there, I did feel like the film was trying to be clever, but I am not sure it had the substance to back it up in places. Oh, and people, watch the road when you are driving.              

In the end, do we recommend Weapons? Look, this film is 100% some people’s jam. They will love it, every, single, moment, of it. Conversely, Weapons is a film that I think will be too much for a lot of people. I think you will know which camp you are in from the trailer alone. Seen Weapons? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Weapons, we would recommend to you 28 Years Later given how wild it can get at times.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Weapons
Directed by – Zach Cregger
Written by – Zach Cregger
Music by – Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay & Zach Cregger
Cinematography by – Larkin Seiple
Edited by – Joe Murphy
Production/Distribution Companies – New Line Cinema, Subconscious, Vertigo Entertainment, BoulderLight Pictures & Warner Bros Pictures
Starring – Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Cary Christopher, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, June Diane Raphael, Clayton Farris, Whitmer Thomas, Callie Schuttera, Toby Huss & Luke Speakman
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 18A; Germany: 16; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 18; United States: R