Weapons

Zach Cregger, one of the twisted minds behind the absurdist sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’ Know, made a huge leap into horror with 2022’s Barbarian. That film’s first half was a master class in slow-burn suspense, ratcheting the tension until you could practically hear your own teeth grinding. The back half took some wild swings. Fun swings, but wild, and it proved that Cregger wasn’t afraid to go for broke.

Now he’s back with Weapons, a film that feels less like a straightforward horror flick and more like a knotty, sprawling ensemble drama. It has scares, sure, but it also has a lot more on its mind.

In Weapons, all but one child from the same school class vanishes at the exact same time on the exact same night. The town reels, the media swarms, a teacher is singled out by the near torches and pitchfork townspeople, and the remaining child becomes a focal point of mystery and paranoia (No spoiler there — it’s pretty much the first five minutes of the film). Cregger’s assembled a killer cast: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan. He’s smartly given them each sharp, memorable beats to play.

The film’s structure riffs on a few contemporary greats. Alden Ehrenreich’s character is basically John C. Reilly’s flawed, but good-hearted cop from Magnolia, right down to the moustache. The energy and crosscutting narrative feel like Magnolia, as well as Pulp Fiction, threading multiple storylines with confidence and propulsion. Even with its large cast and big thematic swings, Weapons moves like a movie that knows exactly where it’s going.

I’d even argue this works better as a story than as a pure horror movie. That’s not to say Cregger skimps on tension or scares, but I found myself more invested in the characters and the plotting than I was actually frightened. There is tension and a few effective jump scares, but the flawed characters and the town’s paranoia were centre stage for me.

Thematically, the movie plays it subtle. Is it a commentary on school shootings? The NRA? The parasitic forces that feed on society’s fear and grief? It never gets preachy or literal, which makes it far more interesting to chew on afterwards.

Without spoiling anything, Cregger resists the urge to pull a big gotcha twist in M. Night Shyamalan fashion. Instead, he lays his cards on the table early enough that the real suspense comes from watching how it all unfolds, leading to an ending that swings for the fences. There’s a beginning, middle, and end to this story.

Weapons cements Cregger as one of the most exciting filmmakers working in horror-adjacent territory right now. If he sticks with the genre, I’m in. But if he decides to chase something bigger, deeper, or stranger, I have a feeling we’ll be talking about his masterpiece one day.