'Weapons' bridges the gap between comedy and horror
Julia Gardner plays teacher Justine in "Weapons." Courtesy of Warner Bros.
"Weapons" consists of a non-linear plot following the citizens of a town that witness 17 kids go missing late one night.
A father, played by Josh Brolin ("Avengers: Endgame"), and a teacher, played by Julia Gardner ("Ozark"), team up to solve the mystery of the missing kids before the monster stalking the town succeeds in its plan.
Zach Cregger ("Barbarian") returns to the horror genre to craft a terrifying but also comedic experience for unsuspecting audiences. I do think the movie is good, but I also think it stumbles due to conflicting tones and a very long runtime that could've been cut out a lot to save the film.
I'll start with the positives, one being Cregger's excellent directing. I think the dream sequences are really entertaining and are filmed like "Nightmare on Elm Street" in some regard. I also really enjoyed both Brolin and Gardner's performances.
Brolin plays Archer, a dad desperate to get his son back after a disagreement that happened before the disappearance. I thought his performance was amazing and tragic. I felt sorry for him at points, but the character does some stuff that made me feel like he was a secondary antagonist.
Gardner plays Justine, a teacher who happens to have all 17 kids who disappeared come from her class. I liked the paranoia that tightens the air in every scene Gardner is in. It made her story feel claustrophobic and tense.
But the other two stories led to the negatives I have with the movie.
They revolve around a crooked cop named Paul, played by Alden Ehrenreich ("Solo: A Star Wars Story"), and an addict named James, played by Austin Abrams ("Chemical Romance"). Both stories share a game of cat and mouse throughout the film. Paul is trying to arrest James for breaking and entering. It spins into the monster's plan, and that's how they fold into the rest of the plot. I felt like their stories were a waste of time, and the comedy that they were going for fell flat for me.
I also thought the reveal of the monster was underwhelming, but it was cool because of how rare that type of monster is used nowadays. I got frustrated that some of the ambiguous parts of the dream sequence were never answered, and the monster's intentions were never fully explained, only slightly hinted at.
Overall, this was a refreshing take on horror, and I'm excited for what Cregger has cooking up next. I think this is a great movie for people who don't like super scary horror movies and are looking for something fun and entertaining in terms of horror. I'd give "Weapons" an 8/10.
Carter Salley is Central Michigan Life's resident film reviewer and co-host of the pop culture podcast "Raving Geeks." He is majoring in media arts.
