Remember going to the movies for fun?
Back before you wondered if this or that movie was going to top a billion dollars and what it said about the world if it did or didn’t?
And back before you could pride yourself at having gone to see the “smart,” mature movie that had everyone talking?
Well, this week’s movie of choice might be one of those movies, but it reminded me of what it felt like to not get too high-minded about good old-fashioned popcorn flicks.
“Weapons” is the second feature Hollywood film by director Zach Cregger who burst onto the scene with 2022’s slow-burn chiller “Barbarian.”
If his first two films are any indication, Cregger has a promising career ahead, with “Weapons” managing, with little fanfare or publicity, to become one of the highest-grossing films of the year.
I had a feeling it might be a surprise success when I went to watch it on opening night and found at least 30 other people in the theater with me, a rarity for an obscure kind of indie film nowadays.
I honestly think the lack of a big advertising campaign worked in the film’s favor to hit that balance just right between drawing curiosity and giving too much away.
For me, it was the movie’s poster that really caught my attention. It shows a group of children silhouetted by streetlights while running playfully through a suburban cul-de-sac with a few streaks of text above: “Last night at 2:17 AM, every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark … and they never came back.”
And as I often say with great movies, you don’t need to know much more than that and should stop reading now and go buy a ticket if you found that interesting enough.
Beyond that teasing text, the film follows Justine Gandy, the eponymous Mrs. Gandy, played expertly by Julia Garner, as she deals with the fallout of the two dozen children under her care vanishing and the rage of the community left behind.
The film is gorgeously shot, reportedly inspired by the cinematography of the great Roger Deakins. And the acting, even by familiar faces like Josh Brolin and Benedict Wong, leaves you thinking you’re watching a report on the nightly news.
One of the earliest scenes in the film is a soberingly familiar one: an auditorium filled with angry parents demanding answers on how this could have happened.
Of course, there are no easy answers to give, leaving the gathered crowd to find something, anything to direct their rage and despair toward.
A darkness descends on the town in the wake of the disappearances. But as with all good horror movies, the film gives a form to that darkness that can be hunted, and cast out.
If only it were so simple. Or, perhaps it is.
It’s impossible not to read the film as a metaphor for the modern phenomenon of school shootings.
Since their very inception, horror stories have been time capsules for society’s fears.
The horror films of the ‘70s reflected the fear of serial killers that plagued the country in those years.
The slasher flicks of the ‘80s reflected anxieties around teen rebellion and promiscuity.
“Scream” in the 1990s reflected the moral panic around violence in mass media.
And now we have “Weapons.”
But, of course, few of those movies felt like sitting through a scolding lecture.
You weren’t thinking about the blunt metaphor of Stu Macher having a TV set crush his head in “Scream.”
And just the same, “Weapons” ends up so over-the-top that it reminded me: not everything with an important message has to be boring and academic.
Not everything has to be ammunition in the culture wars.
Sometimes it can just be fun.
Will this movie start some conversations? No doubt.
But when the body parts start flying and the blood starts to spray, you’ll all be able to reach across the aisle and ask: “Yo, did you see that?”
And those two pieces together, to me, spell a classic horror flick in the making.
I give “Weapons” 5 stars out of 5.