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Writer-director Zach Cregger proved himself a major talent in the horror genre space with the one-third brilliant, two-thirds pretty-darn-entertaining “Barbarian” in 2022. The movie came out when audiences were still tiptoeing their way back into theaters amidst the pandemic and it managed to be a modest hit, earning $45 million at the worldwide box office. “Barbarian” was successful enough that the minute the credits rolled, anticipation heightened for Cregger’s next film.
Enter “Weapons.”
As a late-summer entrant, there has been plenty of buzz leading up to the release of Cregger’s latest feature. The trailers and marketing have been everywhere, but there was never a sense of what “Weapons” was truly about — just that a large group of kids go missing in the middle of the night. And that’s really all that should be known going into the movie.
“Weapons” opens with a genteel — if eerie — voiceover from a child explaining what is going on in the town. A group of 17 students has gone missing from Justine Gandy’s (Julia Garner, who was just seen in “The Fantastic Four: The First Steps”) classroom. She has become a target of suspicion around town because it’s solely her classroom and no others. Archer (Josh Brolin), one of the parents looking for answers, is especially hesitant to trust a word from Justine.
Cregger’s screenplay shows the movie through several characters’ points of view: Justine, Archer, local cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), homeless drug addict Anthony (Austin Abrams), the school’s principal, Marcus (Benedict Wong) and Alex (Cary Christopher), the only student who didn’t go missing from the classroom. As a piece of pure filmmaking, “Weapons” moves seamlessly between each character, overlapping with ease and never tripping up the narrative, thanks to editor Joe Murphy.
Creggers has also crafted “Weapons” with the same consistency as “Barbarian.” Both movies open by introducing the audience to the characters without rushing to introduce the plot. Like his previous feature, he lets viewers sit in the ambiguity of “Weapons,” which is a daring avenue to take. There are times when it would be easy to throw hands in the air and wonder what any of this is about, but Creggers has proven to be a master of burrowing under audiences’ skin and living there for the duration of the film, even when his final acts start to falter a bit. (When Amy Madigan shows up in a scene-stealing performance as Alex’s Aunt Gladys, some of the comedy attached to her character conflicts with the overall tone of the movie.)
Though he got his start in filmmaking by co-directing the silly teen comedy “Miss March,” Creggers has proven he fits comfortably in the horror-thriller lane (his next project is a “Resident Evil” movie, news that comes with a bit of a groan). Perhaps he will make the best “Resident Evil” movie to-date, but it would be a shame if a creative, inventive voice in a tired genre got trapped in a cyclone of IP-driven movies. For now, in the dog days of summer, “Weapons” is an entertaining, twisted treat at the movies.
Matt Passantino is a contributor to CITY.
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