Director: Zach Cregger
Actors: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong
Genre: Mystery / Horror
Rating: MA
‘Weapons’ is another above-average, not run-of-the-mill horror, from the director of ‘Barbarian’. No spoilers here, as the trailer and first 5min gives away the main premise – all 17 kids from one classroom run away from their homes and disappear one night. The only student left at school the next day is Alex (Christopher) and his teacher Justine (Garner). The film then uses a nice device of following each of the 6 main characters for about 15min, before everything coalesces for the final act.
This layering, works well, each section not giving away too
much, but enough to let the audience start putting the pieces together. We follow
Justine initially, who’s blamed by all the parents; then Archer (Brolin) one of
the parents of a missing child, then Paul (Ehrenreich) a cop; then James
(Abrams) a local junkie; then Marcus (Wong), Justine’s Principal; and finally
Alex the kid. How each segment interacts is done superbly, with very limited
overlap. The horror and/or gore does not necessarily escalate in each segment
either.
The score and cinematography are great, and it all moves
quite fast, even though it’s just over 2 hours long. Some laughs, some good
tension and jumps, but noting too strenuous for too long. The final act is
quite hectic and fitting – a good conclusion that doesn’t necessarily answer
every question. I’m still left asking a little bit: “what were the cops doing?”!
Well worth a watch.
Overall: Intriguing, well-paced thriller
Gav’s Rating: 4 stars
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