Weapons

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Zach Cregger

Screenplay Written by: Zach Cregger

Produced by: Zach Cregger, Raphael Margules, Miri Yoon, Roy Lee, J. D. Lifshitz

Starring: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan.

’I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.’

‘This is a true story’ (but really isn’t), narrates a child (Scarlett Sher), as the film begins.

The story starts in a school, where Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), the schoolteacher, walks into an empty classroom, empty, except for one student, Alex (Cary Christopher).

One child out of eighteen remains as reports of the other seventeen missing children are seen on home security cameras running from their homes at 2:17am.  Running with arms out by their sides like they’re playing airplanes as sensor lights flash as they run past.

Weapons is a mystery about the missing children told from the viewpoint of different characters, so each perspective is a chapter in the film: ‘Justine’, the teacher, ‘Archer’ the father (Josh Brolin) of one the missing children, ‘Paul’ (Alden Ehrenreich) a cop looking for the kids and others I won’t mention so I don’t give anything away.  Suffice to say, it’s a film with a structure of chapters used to piece together the story like pieces of a puzzle as each character’s life intersects with each other so it’s like a master puppet pulling the strings until everything falls into place.

There’s a creeping to the mystery.  I wouldn’t say terrifying; but there’re some jumps here, and an anticipation accented by a quiet low hum, then silence.  Or the suspense is built with the ticking of a clock.

The film hit me as weird more than scary as I wasn’t shocked or the disconcertion didn’t hit hard enough so I found Weapons to be an unusual story with scary bits.

The pacing of the film was slow but the performances kept the attention; stand out Julia Garner as the, ‘don’t go all Justine’ schoolteacher.

So I was absorbed into Weapons, I just wasn’t blown away making me wonder about the hype.  But it was worth watching just to see the Josh Brolin character wake up from a nightmare questioning its weirdness with an incredulous, ‘What the fuck?!’