Weapons (2025): A Review

WEAPONS

I went into Weapons thoroughly blank, with no knowledge of what it was about. It was just highly recommended by people that I know. I left Weapons pleased that it was a good film. It is not a great film. However, as things go, I think Weapons gives audiences what they ask.

Told through various chapters covering the chronicled events from various angles in nonchronological order, Weapons begins in voiceover from a child. The child reports that at Maybrook Elementary school, the entire third grade class of Miss Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) has disappeared. Well, all but one: Alex Lilly (Gary Christopher), who remains but who is silent. The mass disappearances of Miss Gandy's students in the middle of the night sends shockwaves throughout the community. 

Some of the parents, such as Archer Graff (Josh Brolin) insist that Justine has something to do with the disappearances, some of which were caught on camera. Justine, who is caring about her students but is also a bit of a tart and lush, continues pressing to speak to Alex. Her boss, Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong) keeps warning her against that. Eventually, she reconnects with Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich), a cop and old flame. 

She not only pumps Paul for information but gets him to fall off the wagon. Paul has his own problems separate from his fraught relationship with Donna (June Diane Raphael), his wife or live-in girlfriend who is also the daughter of his boss. Paul also has to contend with two-bit criminal and junkie James (Austin Abrams). James may be high, but he also knows the shocking truth about what happened to the kids. This does not save him, however, from a brutal end. 

The shocking truth does not spare Marcus, who has become something of a zombie who tries to kill Justine in front of Archer. What is going on? What role if any does Alex's great-aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) have in this sordid tale? There is witchcraft at work here, one that has netted innocents like Alex. Will parents and teachers find the missing kids? Who will make it out alive from this wickedness?

Weapons is divided into six chapters: Justine, Archer, Paul, James, Marcus and Alex. Each part gives us both bits of information about this case as well as filling in parts from other sections. For example, Justine ends with Marcus' shocking attack on her. We pick up in Marcus not only how this formerly pleasant and well-meaning man ended up a crazed zombified figure trying to murder Justine but how he came to do so while wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt. Marcus shows us that he had been enjoying a nice documentary with his life-partner Terry (Clayton Ferris) when Aunt Gladys unexpectedly came to them. Terry was wearing a Minnie Mouse shirt.

I did get a sense that Weapons was drawing a bit from Rashomon at least in giving us various viewpoints when it came to the overall story. I am not comparing Rashomon with Weapons or suggesting that the latter is on the same level as the former. I am merely saying that Weapons puts bits of other characters' stories until we get to that particular character's section. We get that there is or was a relationship between Justine and Paul in Justine. It is not until Paul that we get confirmation that he is both a recovering alcoholic and that he did schtup her as a result of falling off the wagon. How James came back into Paul's line of sight first seen in Paul gets revealed in James. It is an effective manner of telling the overall story, though it made it longer than I think it should have been.

Weapons gives viewers just enough to tease people about the mystery. Writer/director Zach Cregger kept things going well, building on one story to push the next one forward. I think Weapons works well because the performances never went overboard, even when some of the characters were essentially zombies. These moments were more shocking than silly. Granted, there was laughter from the audience at certain points. I can see why people laughed, but I did not think it was anything that would make me join in. 

I think that one element that makes Weapons work is that it takes the premise seriously enough without being morose or idiotic. That is a major credit given some of the scenes, such as a parent being a zombie apparently about to attack someone. Josh Brolin did well as Archer, the grieving father whose obsession in finding his bully son shifts his perspective from hostile towards Justine to becoming her ally. I am unfamiliar with Julia Garner, but I think she in her performance showed Justine to be flawed on a personal level but whose flaws did not extend to the classroom. I spent much of Weapons trying to figure out who Paul was, and it wasn't until the credits that I saw it was Alden Ehrenreich. The man who has at times struggled to escape his failed Solo effort does a good job as the troubled Paul. 

I think too much praise has been given to Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys, the mysterious figure at the center of the wickedness. Yes, she is appropriately creepy as the shadowy force of evil. However, at times I did if not laugh at least smile at her efforts. More credit should be given to Cary Christopher as Alex, the innocent caught in Gladys' monstrous clutches. 

As a side note, I asked myself that the question people in town should have asked is not "Why did the children from Miss Gandy's class disappear?" but "Why was Alex the only one spared?". A lot of the case would have been solved if the police had pursued the second question rather than the first.

Weapons is an effective horror film, if a bit long. It works for what it is, even with the voiceover that begins and ends the film. In a weak year, Weapons is one of the better films that I have seen. 

DECISION: B-