Producers: Zach Cregger, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules Director: Zach Cregger Screenplay: Zach Cregger Cast: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, Toby Huss, Whitmer Thomas, Callie Schuttera, Clayton Farris, June Diane Raphael and Luke Speakman Distributor: Warner Bros.
Grade: B
Zach Cregger’s second horror film suffers from the same defect that his first, “Barbarian,” did: after a superbly unsettling first half, it degenerates into something more predictable in the second—an example of great set-up, disappointing follow-through. Yet even as it weakens, “Weapons” offers some undeniable pleasures, most notably an over-the-top but delectable performance by an actor who hasn’t had such an opportunity for scenery-chewing in years. And if the ending, for all its gruesome humor, is a bit of a letdown, you have the memory of what led up to it to savor.
The picture begins with the voice of a little girl recounting a strange moment in her town’s history: the start of a day at the elementary school presided over by Principal Marcus (Benedict Wong) which saw Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) walk into her third-grade classroom to find only one of her eighteen students in attendance—quiet little Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). The other seventeen, as security cameras around town will verify, had all awoken at 2:17am in the morning and rushed out of their houses, entranced, for some mysterious destination.
Gandy immediately becomes the focus of the town’s hostility, with Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), owner of a construction outfit and father of one of the missing children, class bully Matthew (Luke Speakman), loudly demanding answers from her at a hastily-assembled community meeting. That night, after picking up a couple bottles of vodka and going home to soothe her nerves with them, Justine is harassed by pounding at her door, and next morning finds the word “WITCH” painted on her van.
On leave the next day, she’s met at a bar by Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich), a cop who’s an old friend and tries to talk her down. The two obviously have a history, and Paul’s wife Donna (June Diane Raphael) happens to be out of town; Donna’s also, incidentally, the daughter of Ed (Toby Huss), the police chief who’s Paul’s boss. The night Paul and Justine share is only one problem Morgan will have with Ed, because he has to take the chief into his confidence after an encounter with James (Austin Abrams), a drifter who’s both a drug addict and a burglar, which ended with some dash cam footage on Paul’s police cruiser that could be incriminating in court.
After the prologue introduced by that little girl’s disembodied voice, the film proceeds through a series of interlocking chapters focusing on the main characters, beginning with “Justine” and proceeding through “Archer,” “Paul,” “James,” “Marcus” and “Alex,” shown largely from the perspective of each and often repeating events from a different viewpoint while adding detail and references to previous and later segments. It’s a clever device that puts the viewer to work making connections for himself. The last chapters introduce other characters who don’t get ones of their own—most notably Alex’s elderly aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), who becomes the boy’s caretaker when his parents (Whitmer Thomas and Callie Schuttera) fall ill, and Marcus’ partner Terry (Clayton Farris)—while explaining what’s happened to the missing kids.
Frankly, given the premise with which the plot begins, there are a limited number of resolutions that would work. One has been suggested early on; another appears when a character sees an apparition of a massive automatic rifle—perhaps a spacecraft—in the sky (presumably a reference to school shootings as well as alien abductions). Cregger makes his choice of the possibilities and follows it through gleefully, both in terms of sudden shocks and an extended, bloody finale suffused with ghoulish humor that will either make you giggle with delight, as some do with Sam Raimi-like “Evil Dead” stuff, or avert your eyes in disgust. To be honest, there are moments that, white effective in themselves, in retrospect play like mere red herrings that don’t fit in with the ultimate revelations—a really creepy scene early on in which Justine, asleep in her car, is approached by a spooky apparition, for example, has no payoff. And one can justly complain that the perpetrator’s intentions, and the methods behind what the villain does, are never clearly explained.
But the flaws are minor, and easily overlooked while the intriguing plot carries you along, helped by Cregger’s astute direction, Tom Hammock’s evocative production design, John Murphy’s canny editing, an eerie score by Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay and Cregger and—perhaps most importantly—cinematography by Larkin Seiple that creates a mood of pervasive unease, particularly through a deft use of tracking shots.
And, of course, by an excellent cast. These characters might not be deeply drawn—nuance is not a prime concern in such genre pieces—but they’re all damaged people, and the actors successfully get that across. Garner, Brolin and Ehrenreich are especially successful in capturing the flaws—Justine is a woman desperate for affection and quick with a drink (her manner makes you wonderful whether she was an effective teacher), Archer is aware of his failings as a father and a businessman (a trait that makes him all the more intent on proving himself), and Paul knows he’s in trouble both personally and professionally. Among the others Abrams is utterly convincing as the tent-dwelling junkie always in need of a fix and the money to secure one, and Madigan takes charge whenever she’s onscreen.
Like “Barbarian,” “Weapons” loses some of its punch down the home stretch despite the effort of Cregger and his colleagues to keep the energy level pulse-poundingly high. But even though it ends up a bit winded, like some of its chief characters, it will certainly satisfy genre fans with its mixture of thrills, suspense and mystification.