The Kids are Alright
Zach Cregger is no joke.
Weapons
Director: Zach Cregger • Writer: Zach Cregger
Starring: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong
USA • 2hrs 9mins
Opens Hong Kong August 7 • III
Grade: B+
One night, at 2:17am to be precise, 17 elementary school children in mid-sized city Maybrook get out of bed and run off into the night, arms flailing in an ungodly, creepy manner. An anonymous narrator tells the story, talking about how the kids never came back and how no one knows where they went, or why. That describes writer-director Zach Cregger’s horror-mystery Weapons at its most basic; an exploration of how a community soothes itself and looks for somewhere to place blame in the aftermath of a collective tragedy.
But that’s also a reductive summary of Cregger’s genre mixer, a stylistic and structural delight, told in multiple chapters from shifting perspectives, constructed on an almost inverse pyramid that builds its story and adds its revelations at a deliberate pace until the final chapter explodes with pent up tension and some dark, dark, dark comedy. Bursting onto the horror landscape in 2022 with the maniacal Barbarian and then as producer on Companion (and the forthcoming reboot of Resident Evil), Cregger has made a mark quickly and demonstrated a thematic consistency that would make Stephen King proud. He’s twisted AF (that’s a compliment) but is always in control of his material. Weapons trades in careful compositions (this is what the prof in Film School 101 meant by mise en scène, kids), persistent dread, ratcheting tension and – fuckin’ finally – darkness lit for eeriness that still allows us to see what’s happening. Larkin Seiple’s (Everything, Everywhere All at Once, Netflix’s BEEF) cinematography, flawless editing by Joe Murphy and a sometimes discordant, always evocative score by Cregger and Hays and Ryan Holladay provide the technical support that makes Weapons an absolute trip.
Her arms are wrong
The mystery begins unfolding on the morning teacher Justine Gandy (the new Silver Surfer Julia Garner, Wolf Man) gets to her classroom and finds it empty except for Alex (Cary Christopher), the one kid who… survived (?) the events of 2:17am. Naturally, the police get involved, and when the department finds zero evidence incriminating Justine – admittedly it looks bad – and traumatised Alex has just as little in the way of knowledge about what’s going on the community is left to fester. The bizarre tragedy has people, parents, raging at Justine when they’re not indulging in isolationism, booze and conspiracy theories as a way to deal with their fear and confusion. Also circling Maybrook’s emotional drain is the father of one of the missing kids, Archer (Thanos himself, Josh Brolin), whose distrust of the cops prompts him to start looking into the mass disappearance himself. Then there’s not-very-good beat cop Paul (young Han Solo Alden Ehrenreich, rocking a porn ’stache), who has a complicated relationship with Justine, and his current bugbear James (Austin Abrams, Euphoria, Wolfs), an unhoused junkie. Justine’s principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), is the administrator tasked with running interference between irate parents and his frustrated teacher, who he counsels against doing stupid shit. Rounding out the key players is a tremendously committed Amy Madigan as Alex’s Auntie Gladys.
Weapons demands patience, and Cregger’s methodical storytelling isn’t going to be to everyone’s tastes, especially horror hounds who may be expecting a bit more in the way of straight-up fright. Jump scares are carefully deployed here, with the film leaning heavily on mood, atmosphere and character for its momentum. The core characters are recognisable and real; messy and complex people that force reexamination of who they are with each new piece of the puzzle. So yeah it’s on the slow side. But that allows room for each chapter to reveal more of the larger picture and add crucial context to the central event in dribs and drabs, and to exploit the film’s mystery elements. In weaving the full tapestry together from its disparate POVs and random tech (like doorbell cams) Cregger bolsters that mystery and sets up one of the great, grisly, hilarious horror explosions of the year.
For all its creative filmmaking and stellar performances, Weapons isn’t quite the intellectual exercise it may appear. All the kids in a single class vanishing in the blink of an eye raises the spectre of a school shooting allegory – not a stretch given a few of the film’s more curious images and, oh, American news – but anything beyond group hysteria and the myth of suburbia might be a push. But it doesn’t need to be more when a film takes a swing as big as this one, which at this point in time simply means original.