‘Weapons’ review: Zach Cregger’s moving madness

The writer/director of Barbarian returns with a faster, meaner, and more layered terror tale in Weapons.

Movement is an under appreciated feature in horror movies. While the last decade or so of A24 fright flicks have taught audience to brace for slow burns, some of the scariest movies have moments that move at breakneck speed. Think of Leatherface charging after Sally in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Samara crawling out of the TV in The Ring. No matter how much tension a horror movie builds by slowly tightening its grip on an audience, having it lunge at a crowd at just the right time makes for something that’ll stick with them. It’s a lesson that Zach Cregger (The Whitest Kids U’Know) seemingly learned between the smash success of Barbarian and the making of his latest scary showcase Weapons.

Cregger’s second horror feature starts like a ghost story being told around a campfire, with a child narrator talking about the night 17 third graders woke up at 2:17 a.m. and ran out of their homes into the darkness. Even stranger is they’re all students of Justine (Julia Garner), a new teacher at school who became the town pariah by parents who are desperate for answers. One parent (Josh Brolin) is convinced Justine had something to do with it. One local cop (Alden Ehrenreich) thinks Julia needs to keep a brave face. One school staffer (Benedict Wong) just wants everyone to move on. But Julia is wondering why one student (Cary Christopher) didn’t randomly run off, and why he’s been so quiet about the whole thing, and why his home windows are covered in newspaper. Everyone is trying to unravel the mystery before they unravel from their own baggage.

Pieces at play.

Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

I once saw someone describe Barbarian as “Fincher upstairs, Raimi downstairs,” meaning it starts with the meticulous tension of a David Fincher thriller and ends with the gory chaos of a Sam Raimi flick. If I were to describe Weapons in the same format, I’d say the upstairs is now occupied by Fincher and Quentin Tarantino. Cregger breaks his script up into chapters, giving each of the aforementioned characters enough screen time to show the missing kids aren’t the only problems they’re dealing with. Each chapter is laid out in somewhat linear fashion, filling in the details of certain scenes while also keeping the audience guessing. It’s no Pulp Fiction and the finale has a somewhat familiar villain, but Cregger does well at moving more pieces around the board and having them crash into each other as the movie goes on.

Though a good chunk of the movie takes place in daylight, Cregger and his team haven’t lost their skills with the dark. The filmmakers know how to make a darkened doorway as scary as any monster while also hiding spooky bits in the dark corners of rooms waiting for the audience to see their menacing figure. Sound, or the lack thereof, is also a factor. While the score from Cregger and brothers Hays and Ryan Holladay is closer to a crime thriller than anything spooky, Weapons is best when it’s near silent and letting its boogeyman slunk around scenes without a noise.

And then we come back to movement. Weapons knows when to creep up on the audience and when to charge at a crowd full speed ahead. The Naruto run has never looked so menacing (and admittedly, hilarious) than it does in Cregger’s hands, whether it’s the children sprinting through the night or Wong hustling down the street with the front of his skull caved in. Cregger and his team do impressive Steadicam work to keep the audience sprinting alongside the action scenes without making things unwatchable via shaky cam. Weapons also knows when to menace with little movement, whether via a long take of someone slowly creeping up on our protagonist or by slowly moving around someone standing stiff as a board. It’s as if Cregger found the perfect middle ground between the creeping dread of The Conjuring and the heart-racing terror of 28 Days Later.

Our neighbors.

Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Horror movies usually require actors to either A. act stupid so it’s fun when the slasher cuts them in half or B. look more and more frazzled when the horrors start to pile on. So it’s another credit to Cregger’s script that the actors in Weapons have a lot more to chew on than the usual terror tale. Take Aldenreich’s part, for example; a small supporting role as a cop taking pity on Justine who then gets roped into the madness. With the script giving the character a bit more backstory (a former alcoholic struggling with the traps of suburban life), Aldenreich has much more sadness and depth to work with. It makes him more likable (or worthy of sympathy) and memorable than most standard horror fodder. Those little character details make memorable moments for everyone from a homeless drug addict (Austin Abrams) to Christopher as the mysterious lone student.

It’s wild how Garner is starting her year with a horror film (Wolf Man) and ending it with a horror film, and her performances in both are at opposite ends of the quality spectrum. Whereas Wolf Man stuck her with a generic frightened mother character only meant to look scared, Weapons lets Garner show her range in fleshing-out Justine’s background. Garner gets to be funny, flawed, sympathetic, and fierce as well as frightened as the movie goes on. Even in moments where she’s at her most fragile, Garner has a magnetic presence that makes you want to stick with her storyline.

Oddly enough, the weak link the cast might be the one with the most emotional investment. Brolin has plenty to work with being a grieving father desperately trying to figure out where his son ran off to. He’s also an Oscar nominee who certainly fits the physical bill of a grizzled, blue-collar worker wearing Carhartt jackets and driving a tank-like pickup truck. And yet, Brolin is too stone faced to project whatever emotional struggle his character is dealing with. Maybe it’s a smart decision not to overdo the “grieving father” archetype, but you still wish Brolin or someone else dug a little deeper to show how desperate a man would be to splatter “WITCH” on someone else’s car.

The bottom line.

With Weapons, Cregger has met the high expectations audiences had for him after the success of Barbarian. He’s got better characters playing out a more intricate (though slightly familiar) story while flexing more of his technical skills as a director. It may not be the best horror film of the year (Sinners still has that crown), but Weapons is an engrossing thriller that keeps chasing you and getting closer every time you look back at it. Don’t walk, run to it.

Weapons is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Read more articles by Jon Winkler here.

Jon Winkler