MOVIE REVIEW! - "Weapons"

In Maybrook, Pennsylvania, at 2:17 in the morning, seventeen children got up out of bed, ran out of the house, and they never came home. The only thing that the kids had in common was that they were in the same third grade classroom with Ms. Justine Gandy. This is just the beginning of the story.

What follows is an intriguing mystery horror film that takes a look at the same time period after the kids disappeared from the different perspectives of the film’s cast. At first, we follow Justine (Julia Garner), the teacher that the whole town is blaming for the event due to all the kids being from her class.

Then, we see the same events through the eyes of several other characters such as Archer (Josh Brolin), a contractor whose son is one of the missing children. The various storylines culminate into one of the most satisfying conclusions that I’ve ever experienced with a horror movie.

Julia Garner plays Justine Gandy, a troubled teacher who is trying to find out what happened to her students in "Weapons".

Now, the movie does start slowly as writer and director Zach Cregger gives us all the puzzle pieces before finally putting them together through these different points of view. Thankfully, the movie starts to rev up and the answers do start to come into focus.

The movie is the follow-up to Cregger’s previous box office and critical success, “Barbarian”. With this movie, Cregger solidifies his status as a modern day horror master. Surprisingly, though, this movie is not just serious horror.

The movie actually contains far more dark humor than I expected the film to have. There are certain moments that make you want to cringe and laugh at the same time. I would love to give some examples here, but that would be getting into spoiler territory so all I’ll say is just be prepared to laugh here and there more than you probably thought you would.

"Weapons" takes place after one night when 17 children got up out of their beds, ran out of the house, and never came home.

The cast for the movie is amazing. Garner and Brolin are great in their parts, but they are also surrounded by stellar supporting roles from actors such as Benedict Wong, Alden Ehrenreich, Amy Madigan, and Austin Abrams.

While there is a healthy amount of humor, though, make no mistake about it that this is a solid mystery horror film. The whole movie has an unsettling tone and plenty of jump scares. It even has a few memorable gory moments as well.

If you’re a major horror fan like me and/or if you really enjoyed Cregger’s “Barbarian”, then you will love this movie. It went in directions that I didn’t expect it to go, there were twists and turns, and ultimately the movie stuck the landing in a big way. I feel that “Weapons” will go down as a solid horror classic!