Just when you thought all horror was lost and we'd never see the night of darkness again, there comes this little low budget gem. Weapons is a bit of a strange tale about a smallish town that has a very mysterious happening. All of the children ran out of their houses one morning night at 2:17 am, leaving everyone in the town to wonder why. Obviously, the parents all panic, thinking that they have just lost their children for good. Police are baffled and the pressure is on to find answers.
Starting with the struggles of Julia Garner's Justine character, as the teacher of all 17 missing children, is suspected to be behind this horrible happening. You see how she copes with the situation, which is by the skin of the tooth, and how she is trying very hard to investigate the disappearance while also dodging her boss, played by Benedict Wong, and the police to do so.
What this movie pulls off from the very start is the angst and the dark, mysterious atmosphere as the parents suffer, namely Josh Brolin's character, Archer, who lost his son, Matthew. You see his struggles and how he does not handle it well at all in some cases, but then as the mystery unfolds, you see his wits start to come into play and you see he is far more resourceful than he looked. As an architect, he is able to measure distance, radius and he is able to decipher the direction the children were running from the camera footage capturing it.
Even the crackhead character is played very well by Austin Abrams, and I hope to have a good review of his upcoming Resident Evil movie (but I hold out no hope). You see the lies he tells to score a hit and then you see that he is also just trying to do the right thing while also scoring a lot of drugs in the process. His exploits with Justine's ex, the roughed up cop played by Alden Ehrenreich, who is showing acting chops far beyond his debut as Han Solo in that disaster Solo Movie. The two of them seriously rough each other up, especially when the crackhead's needles seem to find a way to connect to the questionably moraled police officer.
The sequences of horror are what really bring this movie to the green spotlight. It is so refreshing to see a proper build up with a proper payoff that you probably did not see coming. It was obvious from the start that this was going to be supernatural, but how it pulled it off was very surprising. The villain of this film is very apparent, but her methods are shocking and she lacks any sort of moral compass throughout the entire runtime. The killings are brutal, gruesome and they are very loud. The more this plot unfolds, the more horrible the implecations. There are lines that this movie thankfully does not show, but they are unfortunately quite impending.
The final nail that drives this movie home is the theme that it sprinkles throughout the entire movie. The title "weapons" had some strange depictions, but then the undertones of weaponizing our guilt and grief through terrible situations is very apparent. How the parent and the teacher both set upon the task of finding and saving those children is both endearing while also remaining deeply troubling. The lengths they go to in order to find those children can go borderline to downright insane. How she stalks the final child who did not disappear is the same exact notion. It's understandable why she did it, but how it troubles the child is also palpable!
This movie takes the mystery elements of a horror and slams them in your face in the most glorious way. The portrayals are amazing by a very solid cast, the directing is obviously high in creativity and concept while keeping you very engaged. Zach Cregger will also be directing the aforementioned Resident Evil film, and if this movie is any indication, it could be the first actual awesome movie in the entire franchise. No, the first film did not age well and no, W.S. Anderson is not a good director. Knife Fight Me!
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