'Weapons' Delivers Genuine Scares with Some Eye Rolls
Some movies require multiple viewings to fully appreciate all their layers. A good film provides a fun time at the theater that you may want to re-experience. A great film is one where, each time you watch it, you catch something new. Weapons comes close to greatness until it stumbles halfway through, making me only want to watch the first act again. Its first act is brilliant. The second it starts to dip in quality. By the third act, it regresses to typical horror conventions, discarding all the intellectual buildup in favor of simplistic plot devices and gore.
It still works very well with one of the most satisfying yet disturbing kills put on screen in years. But it's also a massive downgrade from the opening half. Even when the film becomes overly conventional, Writer/Director Zach Cregger is able to utilize the aesthetic of horror films that have been built over the years to create something fresh.
Weapons' horror initially stems from tribalism. A common theme among horror films these days. Whether it be absurd beautification standards in The Substance or mob mentality represented in this picture, this is a far more intelligent film than The Substance, which had the subtlety of a machete slicing a monster's head open. Weapons is scary because of the way people behave when faced with a crisis. Instead of coming together to try to solve a problem, everyone finds a scapegoat. As the film's opening narration suggests, even the police covered up what happened to protect their interests rather than face accountability for their massive incompetence.
If you're familiar with The Leftovers, then you can get an idea of what this picture's story is. During a routine school day, Justine Gandy's (Julia Garner) students all disappear without a trace, leaving no clue as to their whereabouts. Only one student is remaining in the classroom. Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). With Justine being the only adult in the children's presence at the time, she's understandably blamed for the children's disappearance.
During a town hall meeting led by the school's principal, Andrew (Benedict Wong) invites Justine onto the stage to "defend herself," when in reality, all they're doing is holding a very polite witch trial without any convictions. It's the school's way of pretending to be responsible. Instead of asking where the hall monitors, security guards, and office staff were to stop the children from departing the premises, everyone piles on the teacher. Where most films would cut to the media frenzy surrounding the event, Weapons stays focused on the members of the community, taking away the distracting spectacle of news beats.
One particularly upset parent, Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), is the lead torch carrier in the meeting, galvanizing all the parents' hatred toward Justine. Although the two are at odds with each other, they do have a predictable outcome. As Justine navigates her community as a leper, there's a great long take sequence that follows Justine into a liquor store. As the camera tracks behind Justine, we get the idea of how her mind is racing. Everyone she sees gives her dirty looks. There's no escaping it. It's just a continual track through misery that doesn't cut because there is no cutting in life. The only thing she can do is drown her problems away. It's a subtle scene in a picture that slowly regresses toward comedy.
Each act in the film is divided into chapters focusing on a different character from the community. After Justine's act, we cut to Archer, then to Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), the local cop trying to uncover the case. Paul isn't the smartest or cleanest cop there is. Of course, that's most cops. Act III of V is where the movie shifts tonal gears from a psychological exploration of society into a dark laugh fest. When Paul covers up an incident he had with a heroin addict, the movie loses something that it was building up toward.
By the third act, the movie turns into yet another horror flick you could pluck from the litter that just so happens to be much funnier, and dare I say even scarier than what's typically available. If it weren't for Zach Cregger's keen eye, we'd have another forgettable 28 Days Later knockoff. When the mystery surrounding the missing children is revealed, the movie abandons all realism. Did the movie have to go full science fiction territory?
Instead of relying on implied horror, Weapons loses much of its memorability with infected citizens and spilled blood. It's the same problem that's prevalent in From Dusk Till Dawn to Sinners. It's as if the director is afraid to take risks, so they retreat to extremely well-shot but standard conventions to prevent the audience from getting bored. Even with those problems, Weapons is unique. Cregger plays with the camera, utilizing slow-moving zoom lenses, akin to those found in 1970s horror films, and other strategies that create a clumsy yet memorable picture.
