Weapons Review | A Clutter-Breaking Horror Thriller With Unapologetic Levels of Gore

Weapons, the new film from Zach Cregger after 2022’s Barbarian, is a really peculiar horror thriller that sort of gives you the impression it is going to be your typical jump scare fest, but then suddenly takes a dramatic shift and surprises you with an unprecedented amount of gore presented in a surprisingly satisfying manner. With Cregger opting for this unique way of showing the horror Story from the perspectives of multiple characters, Weapons has a packaging that is strange and seductive.

Seventeen children from one class in a school in Pennsylvania go missing one night, and the security footages show that they all ran out of their homes at night into the dark. Only one student survived this incident, and everyone suspected the teacher, who had a troubled history. What we see in the movie is the efforts of this teacher, one of the parents, and the authorities to solve this case, where they can’t find any traces of the missing children.

If you look at the Story of the movie, it is a pretty simple and straightforward horror movie concept. What is terrific about the writing of the film is its approach. Even though the film starts with a sequence that shows the kids running into the dark, it immediately switches into an investigative mode. That shift in tone of the movie is keeping us interested, as the film can go in any direction. Zach Cregger uses this chapterwise narration, featuring each character showing us multiple perspectives of the same event. The genre of each of these characters’ viewpoints has its own uniqueness.

Zach Cregger has an idea that keeping the movie in the scary space for too long can make it a routine horror film that simply uses the tried and tested formula of scaring people. It transforms from being a haunting Story to a father’s emotional struggles. Then it becomes the Story of a police officer who messes up on the job. Then you have the somewhat funny Story featuring a junkie. Then it explores the lonely struggle of a kid. The contrast of the emotions in each chapter makes it interesting for the audience. Zach Cregger uses sound mixing effectively to convey the eeriness of the movie. The kind of gore fiesta that happens in the last 15 minutes of the film is extreme, funny, and oddly satisfying.

Julia Garner plays the part of the teacher in the Story. It is a character who has a troubled past, and that sort of becomes her reason to dig into the matter. She portrays the character’s state of mind neatly. Josh Brolin gets to play the role of a parent of one of the kids, and with his typical rage, he becomes that concerned parent with an investigative mind. Alden Ehrenreich as the cop who panics after a point was good with his performance. Amy Madigan plays a really important role in the film, and she portrays the contrasting nature of her character very effectively on screen. Young Cary Christopher had to do the subtle acting part in this movie, where one can see the fear in his character, but with less animated expressions, and the kid was superb. Austin Abrams as the homeless guy and the whole track featuring him was fun to watch.

Usually in horror films, when the climactic episode happens, the tension sort of increases even if we know how things will end. Zach Cregger has designed his screenplay in a way that these sorts of tense moments happen in the earlier portions of the movie. And towards the end, he uses the gore to sort of liberate the audience from the tensions. The multiple layers of trauma we have seen in the film because of the antagonist are such that the payoff that happens through a daylight extreme gore feels like a satisfying thing to watch. With many unanswered questions, a much scarier sequel is definitely on the cards.