Review: Weapons

Among the weapons that Director Zach Cregger wields in his latest effort are shocking violence, mystery, and experimentation. Are they high enough caliber to hit us the way that Barbarian did?

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When director Zach Cregger gained notoriety for his surprise hit Barbarian a couple of years ago, it was largely on the back of a novel three-act structure that withheld the nature of the plot for as long as possible in an effort to maximize tension and shock for the audience. For his follow-up, Cregger invests even more heavily in the mystery component of the story and experiments even more boldly with form. As someone who really enjoyed Barbarian, that's an exciting prospect for a new movie, but its also a dangerous tightrope to walk. Does Weapons fulfil its ambitious aspirations, or does it fall apart under scrutiny? Mostly the former, I'm happy to report. Let's dig in and see if I can write cogently about a movie this fraught with elements that I dare not spoil.

The premise of Weapons centers around a class of elementary-aged children that all wake up one night at the precise same time and run out of their homes into the darkness. The only people that show up to the classroom the next morning are their teacher and the one child that seems to be exempted from the mysterious goings-on. Naturally, those are two individuals that receive a ton of interest from the police, the school administration, and especially the shellshocked parents in the community. They are also the two characters that bookend the movie with chapters detailing their point of view leading up to and in the immediate aftermath of the mass disappearance. Cregger chooses to tell this story exclusively in these chapters, following the POV of several of the characters in orbit of this event, a decision which allows him to reveal information in a non-linear fashion and through unreliable narrators in order to prolong the mystery for as long as possible. It is not the first time we've seen that story-telling device in film, but it is deployed here in an ingenious manner to amp up the uncertainty and mayhem before finally revealing the truth behind it all. Cregger is also proving to be an expert in crafting mysteries that actually hold up once you have all the information. What's going on at the center of Weapons is not so crazy as horror plots go, but the unique mechanism for dispensing information keeps you completely in the dark until the film decides to illuminate things. Compare that to the work of someone like J.J. Abrams, for example, where the "building intrigue" portion of the assignment gets high marks, but there never seems to be an actual plan for making it all hang together once the credits roll. Cregger clearly started with the end in mind, and built everything else around that.

I will admit that there are some plot contrivances that don't fully hold up after the big reveal, and I expect that this film might lose some juice on a second viewing, which is not something that I can say about Barbarian. Additionally, it is framed as a story being told to us by a narrator, which is a decision that not only feels vestigial from an earlier version of the script, but also works at odds with the point of view chapters that make the film special. Still, Weapons is certainly worth a watch. It is anchored by some really good performance by the likes of Julia Garner and Josh Brolin, and that plot structure is truly something unique for a film like this. You are also treated to some legitimate scares and some delightfully humorous moments, all while dealing with some dark and gory elements. It is a precise concoction that seems to be Cregger's stock and trade, which makes me even more excited to see whatever unconventional direction he heads off in next.