Weapons
Starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan
Directed by Zach Cregger
Rated R
Streaming on HBOMAX

First Impression: Weapons offers a refreshing take on the horror-thriller genre. Director Zach Cregger, who first stood out with his previous horror film “Barbarian” has delivered once again. While some critics may categorize Weapons less as horror film, I believe it will ultimately be regarded as one of the year’s best films.

When you think about horror films most people either love or hate them. The folks on the side of hate usually complain about how formulaic horror films can be where the big bad villain, whether it be Jason, Freddy, Chucky, Alien, or Predator all seemingly meet their demise at the end of the film only to be (spoiler alert) brought back repeatedly for countless sequels, prequels and reboots galore. While horror fans appreciate and admire these iconic monsters of horror most non-horror fans grow tired with the unoriginality that is derived from the countless sequels that follow them.

That’s where the new Film Weapons is refreshingly different. Even before the film rights were awarded it was reported that there was a bidding war for the script between heavyweight directors Jordan Peele and his studio Monkeypaw Productions (Universal) and Director Cregger, who had New Line Cinema. Eventually Cregger won the rights to the script, but it cost them a hefty 38 million dollars. After the famous bidding war Jordan Peele was supposedly so upset he fired his entire management team for being unable to secure the script.

So, with all that fanfare and hype for the script rights the film that was eventually made had a lot of prescreening hype among the critics’ community. After all the hype, I’m here to confirm that Weapons lives up to all of it and more. The film succeeds in ways where most horror films fail. It keeps you guessing who is good and who is bad, who can be trusted and who can’t be. Director Cregger takes an interesting story technique and sets up the film as a series of chapters where each character gets to tell the story from their point of view and how they interact with other characters whose point of view is later showcased in the film. It’s an interesting technique and keeps the tension high and keeps audiences on the edge of their seat to see the main characters from multiple angles. The layered mystery and suspense unravel masterfully in the final act.

If it seems like I’m being deliberately vague it’s intentional. I want people to see this film with the least amount of knowledge possible because it’s such a treat to see it unravel while you are watching. But in fairness I’ll give the plot of the film: “One night at 2 A.M., 17 children from Ms. Gandy’s class got out of their beds, went out the front door and went running into the night never to be seen again.” That’s all I’m giving you if you want to see the crazy way the film ends you’re going to have to give it a shot.

Final Verdict 4.75 out of 5 Stars