Weapons - Weirdly Fun Time

WIKI

Weapons...this was an unusual horror movie. Given that it's from the director of Barbarian, which also was very unusual. Like insane. Weapons is bit tamer in comparison, but definitely has its moments.

The movie begins with us being introduced to the story by a little girl. One night, at 2:17am, 17 students in Justine Gandy's class all ran out of their homes and disappeared. Alex being the only student not to disappear.

A month later, their are no answers.

The story uses the nonlinear story to its advantage. It gives perspective of the present with all of our main characters adding small nuggets of information building the suspense of the story.

So let's dive into Weapons this time with...Dr. Song little help.

We start with Justine, the teacher's, perspective. She's attending a meeting at the school with the parents of the missing kids, the town, the mayor. They're angry and one father demands answers from Justine, thinking she has to know something or was behind it. The incident has made her the town pariah, so she's placed on leave. She resorts to alcohol and sex with her police officer friend and ex boyfriend Paul Morgan.

Fandango

She takes it upon herself to try and find out what happened. She tries to talk to young Alex, which doesn't go well. She follows him home to make sure he's okay, while clearly not, he tells her to leave her alone. She stays outside his home, making sure he's truly okay. What comes next was one of the most suspenseful scenes in the movie.

She falls asleep and a figure appears in the window next to her. Camera moves to focus on just her. We hear the car open and shake. SNIP...a mysterious figure from the back seat cuts a piece of her hair.

We switch now to the father of one of the missing students played by Josh Brolin, Thanos himself, as Archer Graff.

ScrenRant

As any father would, he's taking the loss of his son hard. He's sleeping in his son's room and spending all of his time trying to figure out what happened to his kid. It's affecting his relationship with his wife and his job as a contractor. He spends all his free time investigating house cameras to figure out where the kids went.

He discovers that they all ran in the same basic direction.

Next up, Paul Morgan. A cop who's a former addict. He catches James, a local vagrant, trying to break into a building. After chasing him, Morgan gets his finger pricked by James' heroin needle. He naturally freaks out and beats James, but stops when he realizes its all on camera. He's let go with the assurance if he sees him again, James will go to jail.

James stumbles upon Alex's house and breaks in (addiction is a serious thing). There, he finds Alex's parents catatonic and downstairs finds all the missing children. He flees the house and tries to call the police to get the $50k reward for finding them. Paul sees him, James runs again, but tells the cop he knows where the kids are.

They go to the house and James is cuffed inside the car while Paul goes inside. He returns HOURS later and drags James into the house.

At this point, its completely obvious something is going on in that house and its not good. Parents, catatonic. Kids in the basement, standing, unmoving. People coming out of the house different.

With the first half, the movie builds the suspense of what's going on in the town. Moreso with the last couple of segments with the dad through the cop and vagrant. Watching in the theater my mind races trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle, but only on person has the answer...Alex. But before we get to him, we get to hang out with the Principal of the school and get his perspective.

Zavvi

If you don't think I didn't mentally yell in my head, "WONGERS!!" after seeing She-Hulk...Everytime I see Benedict Wong in any role Madisynn's voice pops in my head.

He finally decides to listen to Justine and wants to meet with Alex's parents for a wellness check. He instead meets Alex's eccentric aunt Gladys. She says she's taking care of Alex since his parents had fallen ill. He schedules a meeting for them for another time.

Now, things really get nuts. She shows up at the principals house and creates a talisman with ribbons she stole from his office. Marcus is put under a spell by Gladys and he attacks and kills his husband and sent after Justine.

She's arguing with Archer when Marcus shows up and attacks. He realizes Marcus ran exactly like the children. The two team up and Archer shows the map showing where he believes the kids could be. Justine recgonizes the area...Alex's house.

Everything comes down to Alex's story. The thing I had been curious of from the getgo. Alex was the key to the whole thing. We see what happened to those days leading up to the night the kids vanished. His dying aunt shows up to live out her last few weeks, but when he wakes up the next day, somethings off with his parents. They're catatonic, thanks to a spell Gladys did...she's a witch working some really bad juju to sustain her life. But she needs more.

Swearing Alex to secrecy, threatening him and his parents, Alex must give her personal items of his classmates. Spell is done and the kids are in the basement ever since.

The movie does well showing the perspectives of each character, giving just enough information to have you wondering what's going on. Pieces of the puzzle coming together until all is revealed. Once Gladys shows up, you know she's behind it all.

The climax is intense with Archer and Justine fighting for thier life along with Alex who's being attacked by his own parents. Breaking the spell and saving everyone was no easy task.

But when it happened...quite literally the funniest and most ridiculous ending of a villain. I'm not even gonna spoil it here...even though I've spoiled most of the movie. It's something you just have to see for yourself. The ending is bittersweet. While it had a decent resolution, it didn't completely end the way I thought it would. No pretty bow, so to speak, on this one.

When this arrives on streaming, if you haven't seen it...Watch. This. Movie.

Horror movies get a lot of flack, but this year, there's been a lot of really decent ones. Sinners and this one are probably two of the top of the year. They're smartly written and tell an interesting story.

Weapons pulls you in with the mystery of the missing kids and the more you see the more you're trying to figure out what exactly happened. And that's what I love in any movie. Great story and mystery that I really want to dive into and try to solve.

The cast does a brilliant job. Props to the young actor that played Alex too. While he wasn't in it much save for a little at the start but plays a big role in the climax. The intensity of the scenes and the drama of it, he did really well.

Watch it. See it in theaters.

4/5