Review: 'Weapons' is a wild, wicked ride

In two films, Cregger has solidified his brand of horror. Full of relatable, situational humor (his comedy sensibilities never far away) and intense, grisly horror sequences. Both Barbarian and Weapons feature WTF moments that build upon each other, giving viewers more of the “what” and “why,” but never the full picture. He also brings weird, occult shenanigans to the suburbs, creating suburban myths. This comes through especially in Weapons which features an unseen schoolgirl as the narrator relaying the “real” story the news won’t tell you. We’re never sure, therefore, if what we’re watching is the actual truth, a fabrication from an imaginative child, or some mixture of the two.

Part of the fun of this movie is watching the story unfold, so I won’t get into plot too much. As you know from the trailers, it concerns a town in which one night, at 2:17am, 17 of the 18 children from one particular class at the elementary school mysteriously get up and run into the night, their arms outstretched like an airplane. No one knows where they went, no one can figure out why only these kids, and everyone, especially father Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), blames the teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner).

The story unfolds through following one character at a time as they intersect and fill in gaps in the action. Aside from Justine and Archer, we also follow local police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), local scumbag James (Austin Abrams), and, eventually, Alex (Cary Christopher), the only little boy in the class who didn’t disappear.

Weapons has a few quick scares early on in the proceedings to keep you on edge, but it mostly allows you to get to know the characters and live in the aftermath of this strange occurrence until the pieces begin to fit and the carnage really starts. And boy, it’s some carnagey carnage. Sustained, brutal violence and some ghastly visuals really punctuate the scare scenes, but only really in service of the consistent, creeping dread. Cregger plays with the uncanniness of a distorted or exaggerated human face to great effect. It culminates in one of the most audacious and horrifyingly hilarious scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Because I don’t want to spoil too much about the movie’s surprises, I sort of can’t talk about what ends up being my favorite performance in the movie. It’s the kind of character you’d only find in a horror movie and done in a way that you’d only find in horror movies like this. Polite society makes it so we try not to stare or snicker or cringe, but you think “That person looks like a ____,” and this movie tells us we’d be right to think so. I think this performance will go down as modern horror perfection.

As with Barbarian, the title Weapons leaves the interpretation to the individual audience member. I have a few ideas of what I think it means, and I look forward to the discussions about what it could mean and who/what it could refer to. And that’s really the best thing about Weapons. It tells a full, terrifying, funny story that continues to baffle even after you know more about what’s going on. You find out why without ever really knowing why. Ambiguous horror at its finest. Can’t wait to see it again.

Weapons hits theaters August 8.

⭐ (4.5 of 5)

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.