The hottest ticket at the movies this summer is for horror films, especially in terms of box office sales versus production budgets and promotional expenses. In theaters, the hits “Together” and “Weapons” are becoming a figurative same-day double-bill for dedicated moviegoers. There has been a jolt of terror, as well as camaraderie, for many ticket buyers who see the fright films one after the other with friends. Additionally, “Weapons” is available on IMAX screens, including in metro Buffalo-Niagara.
Some early motion picture studios built their successful destinies through horror and monster movies, especially Universal Pictures in the 1930s and 1940s, with offerings such as original productions and variations of “Dracula,” “The Wolf Man,” “The Phantom Of The Opera,” “The Invisible Man,” “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” “The Mummy,” and “Frankenstein.” Universal also discovered that laughter would flourish with box office winners featuring the adventures of their comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello encountering the studio’s many monsters in film after film.
With his movie, Zach Cregger, the writer and director of “Weapons,” has a knack for indicating that things could be worse than what they are in the immediate moment, and then delivering on that promise. I like a director who appreciates, just as great magicians do, that a tantalizing promise is just as interesting and alluring as the big reveal. There are plenty of unexpected reveals in Cregger’s unique film.
“Weapons” begins with a very clever bit of hocus pocus. At 2:17 a.m. on a Wednesday night in a middle-class suburban neighborhood in a small town in Pennsylvania, 17 out of a total of 18 students in a single local elementary school class get out of bed, leave their homes, and essentially vanish. They drift into the darkness with their arms extended as if they were pretending to have airplane wings. A boy named Alex doesn’t participate. The movie starts with and then progresses with voice-over narration and will include “chapters” highlighting an individual character who is a participant in the strange and discomforting tale being told.
There is an investigation and meetings in which townspeople turn on each other, especially against the teacher, Justine Gandy, who is wonderfully acted by Julia Garner. What has happened? Where are the children? Telling you too much will ruin the film’s many surprises, but it is important to note that there are secrets galore involving Ms. Gandy, a police officer played by Alden Ehrenreich, a key parent who represents anger and sorrow, acted by Josh Brolin, the school principal (Benedict Wong), and young Alex (Cary Christopher). Another essential female character named Gladys is played by Amy Madigan.
Some characters are oddballs, some are in love. Cregger tells his enticing story from different points of view and builds dread superbly. There are nightmares to discover and supernatural developments that lead to the path every proper horror movie should take: mystery and gore. The very well-acted “Weapons” is fraught with fear and filled with tension. It’s one of the best films of any genre I’ve seen this year.
“Together” isn’t at the high level of “Weapons,” but it is still intriguing, and it does have a real-life husband and wife playing lovers, which adds a nice touch of verisimilitude.
In writer-director Michael Shanks’ feature debut, Alison Brie and Dave Franco play a girlfriend and boyfriend who are tired of the big city and decide to move to the country. Brie plays Millie, a type-A schoolteacher with personality and energy and ideas to spare. Franco is Tim, a free-lance musician without permanent gigs, who needs to get back on the work track and boost his self-confidence. That they clearly like each other is patently obvious. Millie wants to avoid domestic boredom, but Tim can overlook boredom if need be. There is a complacency to their relationship that doesn’t bode well, but as folks say: love is love is love.
Director Shanks appreciates the couple’s sweet togetherness, but he’s got a story to tell and he tells it well, although perhaps not as well as could be. “Together” is generally interesting, but it doesn’t go as far as it should in properly using some of the inherent claustrophobia.
Here is where it does go. Near their new home, the couple goes for a walk in the woods and falls into a cavern. They spend the night covered in rainwater, and to stay warm, they press against each other. Without being overly graphic, something bizarre happens. Their legs seem to have fused together, for a while, at least. However, things relax. Until they don’t.
Later on, they are advised by a friend that the cavern was the site that once belonged to a strange religious order. A cult perhaps? A coven of witches and warlocks? A mysterious group of denizens who will control the space forever? Did Millie and Tim sleep on a sacrificial altar? Did they anger the Gods?
The friend becomes a little too involved in what’s occurring between the couple, and the thrust of the film is that the body horror aspect of the story isn’t going to stop with the single episode of fused legs. More and more, Millie and Tim’s body parts become almost one. Because Brie and Franco are an actual couple, the central characters’ relationship factor has an added dimension. There is also a hallucinogenic subtext that is smartly dovetailed into the story.
The allegorical essence of “Together” is obvious – when does relationship togetherness go too far – but Shanks doesn’t overplay his directorial hand. The audience needs to feel uncomfortable and worried, but he understands the rules of romantic horror. The resolution floats into play and the terror aspect – ominous warnings and frightening events – is well-handled using technology that offers seamless visual effects. Brie and Franco are very good as Millie and Tim, which allows the audience to be empathetic in the best possible way. If it isn’t rooting for them, the story would collapse like a house of cards. Fortunately, the truth is an answer that satisfies.