Weapons Movie Review: Gore and scares anchor this domestic horror

"Home" and "comfort" are often used interchangeably across cultures. Ideally, hospitality or food should make you feel at home. What could be scarier than that very place turning into hell, leaving you deserted with nowhere to run to safety? Zach Cregger's Weapons deals with this unnerving proposition, thereby being an apt follow-up to his Barbarian, which portrayed a stranger inhabiting someone else's home.

Set in the fictional town of Maybrook, Weapons begins with schoolteacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), who was just looking to have another working day, making a shocking discovery that 17 of the 18 students in her classroom are missing. Except for Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). The children, due to an unexplained phenomenon, walk out of their homes at 2:17 AM. It is clear that the sporadic absences are somehow related to Alex. "Is this mystery tied to Alex, or is he in bigger danger?" sums up the story of Weapons.

Weapons could have been a classic example of a movie about the redemption of an unreliable person, who is not bad but is still held in the hurricane's hush. Then this would have become a heroic tale of an imperfect person clearing up all their past mistakes and compensating for them with a noble act. The film both gains and loses by not telling us whose story we should follow and whose story ties everyone else's story together till the very last moment. 

It is only appropriate that everyone looks meek and powerless in a story with an overpowering evil, potent enough to wreak havoc on every person it encounters. But for that, those characters needed to be sketchily designed for us not to be emotionally invested. Josh Brolin's riled-up Archer and the clueless Justine, played by Julia, tease in certain scenes that they are going to do more than just be of service to the genre. But they end up doing that. With that being said, both these characters and the rest of them fit into the narrative. No one's existence feels forced.

The film is divided into chapters between the four major characters. Cregger spins a tantalising multi-perspective narrative and ties the seemingly disjointed incidents together convincingly. As the screenplay progresses towards the last act, the drama gets tighter thanks to the wise decision of setting up the plot in a small suburban town, where it is hard to remain a stranger for long. Also, the screenplay shifts between different characters before and after the disappearance of children, and not for a moment are we confused about the whos, whens, and whats. 

Director: Zach Cregger

Starring: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Cary Christopher, Alden Ehrenreich

The visuals and sound effects are worth a special mention, as no shot is too long or unwarranted. It serves the purpose of brilliantly heightening the tension. The same is true about the cuts that seamlessly weave through the various stories and perspectives. Pulsating music needs to add to the eerie atmosphere in a horror movie. 

The sound design is exceptional, and even the sounds of objects are employed efficiently. Take, for instance, a scene where an anxious Justine is sitting inside her car outside Alex's house to prevent anything from happening to him. She comes to the spot at noon, and the frame is on her throughout the time transition when a creepy person passes her car and opens the door (known by the sound) when the camera is still on Justine. There is no need for a reminder for where we left off in a story, be it Justine's, Paul's, Archer's, James' or Alex's. We resume with everyone's story after a break, with no confusion or need for reminders, thanks to the ingenious editing. The visuals play an integral role in the screenplay and seamlessly enable the convergence of all their stories and motives. 

Additionally, the makers have also innovated in the dream sequences. Dreams in most films are lucid and real-worldly. In some cases, they are done so deliberately to confuse us. In Weapons, the dreams are visualised like how we dream in real life; you see a giant gun over the roof that has a digital clock in it. Dark humour is another factor that works in favour of the film. The comedy writer that Zach Cregger is comes to the fore in these spaces, dishing out two to three well-thought-out portions, including the climax resolution, which is a mix of absurdity, comedy and gore.

All the actors have displayed strands of brilliance in their respective portions, but the last act featuring a splendid Cary Christopher and an equally exceptional mystery character outweighs them all. Alex, like any kid of his age, is easily influenced and malleable to manipulation. His walking on eggshells, not knowing how to come out of the danger that he and his parents are trapped in, evokes empathy. Cregger makes us reconsider our wish not to have heroic moments in such a film, providing a proper cinematic high when Alex uses his enemy's weapon against them.

From battling a stranger inside one's home to becoming a stranger in one's own home, Weapons is an apt follow-up to Barbarian. Just because the film is A-rated and has gory scenes, Cregger doesn't take the genre for granted. There is a method to his madness. The film is amply filled with every prerequisite of the genre, and as a bonus, it creates an emotional catharsis... a rarity that turns weapons out of one's own trauma.