Zach Cregger’s Weapons Crafts a Captivating Mystery. Then It Goes Totally Nuts: Review

Weapons, the second original horror movie written and directed by Zach Cregger (Barbarian), captivates right from the jump thanks to a real barn burner of a premise: One night, 17 third graders living in a small town all left their houses at 2:17 AM, running out into the streets and vanishing without a trace. Weeks later, they still haven’t been found, their parents are starting to lose their minds with grief, and their teacher Miss Gandy (Julia Garner) has become an outcast.

By the end of the movie, most of that mystery is solved, though before Weapons can get to that point some people have died “in really weird ways” (per the opening narration) and a lot of other lives have been upended. Cregger’s script breaks the narrative down into chapters focusing on individual characters, including Miss Gandy, one of the aforementioned grieving parents (Josh Brolin), a local cop who’s making some bad choices (Alden Ehrenreich), and Alex (Cary Christopher), the one student in Miss Gandy’s class who didn’t vanish that night.

These stories overlap chronologically and all contribute clues to what exactly happened, until by the end the full picture emerges. Is it a spoiler to say that this movie does in fact resolve its core mystery? It shouldn’t be, especially because it feels important to mention, should anyone be concerned about the ending being unsatisfying, that not only do we receive a vaguely clear explanation as to what happened to the kids, but that the ending is a pretty definitive one — light on specific details, but rich with catharsis.

In many ways, there’s a real puzzle box aspect to watching each character try to understand, in their own way, what exactly happened that fateful night. One of this movie’s primary pleasures, in fact, is the way we come to understand how each point of view connects. Cregger is remarkably disciplined in what details he chooses to reveal and what he chooses to keep hidden, leaving the audience to infer a lot on their own without ever being too oblique about it.

He’s also almost annoyingly aware of the genre expectations he’s working with, which is another way of saying that there are many incredibly tense scenes in this movie that are tense simply thanks to the implication that something really fucked up is about to happen. And, just when you think Cregger’s done teasing you with that potential, the fucked-up things start happening in quick succession. There are some brutal, unsettling moments of violence in this movie, making the laughter inspired by some of its final moments all the sweeter.

The weakest aspect of Weapons is that once most of the movie’s secrets have been laid bare, the core mystery doesn’t seem like it would be substantial enough to sustain a movie made in a more straightforward manner. It’s really only thanks to Cregger’s narrative gymnastics that it’s as captivating as it is — yet those narrative gymnastics are fascinating, so why fight it?

Whereas Cregger’s debut film Barbarian featured a very small cast including Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long, Weapons brings together a larger ensemble, one that mixes in big names with smaller ones, established drama players with notable comedians. (June Diane Raphael, it turns out, is pretty capable of being downright terrifying.) Julia Garner thrives the most on screen when she’s exposing Miss Gandy’s messier side, a wild reminder that even teachers have unpredictable personal lives, while Josh Brolin manages to capture his character’s frustrated sorrow without succumbing to cliche.

Additionally, Amy Madigan plays an instantly iconic new horror villain, visually distinct, fully committed, and utterly terrifying. And legendary casting director Allison Jones, whose legacy includes discovering the casts of Freaks and Geeks and Arrested Development, deserves a lot of credit for finding young Cary Christopher, who has some weighty stuff to deal with here, and handles it exceptionally well.

It all leads to a cinematic experience that’s powerful, scary, disturbing, and often quite funny — much like Barbarian. It’s in comparing the two movies that one can find a greater understanding of who Cregger is as a filmmaker — someone who takes huge chances, makes bold narrative decisions, and never forgets how entwined comedy and horror can be as genres, utilizing both for maximum impact on the audience.

Cregger’s next announced project is a new take on Resident Evil, and if he’s able to bring his out-of-the-box approach to that franchise with no interference, it could be quite cool. Without question it’ll be scary. But hopefully he brings the funny, too. As Weapons proves, the two combined are too delicious to ignore.

Weapons blasts into theaters on Friday, August 8th. Check out the trailer below.