The hit movie “Weapons” directed by Zach Cregger is his second massive hit horror movie after the 2022 movie “Barbarian.”
The movie is in theaters now. Through the weekend of Sept 5 this having made over $144.3 million.
The movie is about a class of 18 third grade children and 17 of them go missing, leaving only Alex (played by Cary Christopher). One night at 2:17 a.m. the 17 kids got out of bed, walked out their respective front doors and ran away into the night.
“Weapons” stars Julia Garner as Justine Candy, the teacher of the kids who went missing, and she kills it in this role. The grief she portrays feels so real and is devastating to watch. The other star of this movie is Josh Brolin, who plays Archer Graff, the father of one of the kids who went missing. His pain and grief are so heavy it often comes out as anger during the movie, which feels like a parent mourning his kid and doing anything to get them back.
“Weapons” on the surface seems like it is a horror movie about grief, but when you dig deeper you realize what it is actually about. The movie has plenty of themes about violence against children in schools and abuse of children. Sometimes it’s very subtle and sometimes it’s in your face. I prefer the more subtle moments like when the villain of the movie, Aunt Gladys (played by Amy Madigan) tells Alex, “You can’t tell anyone about me or I’ll hurt you and your parents,” to keep him quiet about her. Subtle moments are all over this movie and the theme of addiction is not the most subtle. That is a good decision because addiction is a topic we can more openly talk about now.
The way the movie uses the “every town” setting is such an excellent choice for the movie. This is not some big city that is always targeted, or a place in the middle of nowhere. No, this is a suburban town where anyone could live. This makes the movie even scarier because it could happen to anyone.
The sound design is not noticeable at first, but it really is such a good decision to have it be intense or completely silent. The climax of the movie has almost no background sound which makes the scene even more intense.
Overall, the movie is incredible and highly recommended for fans of horror movies.
