‘Weapons’: Julia Garner and Josh Brolin Bring Raw Tension to Zach Cregger’s Eerie Horror Mystery

Alci Rengifo

More than ever, horror films feel like the image comes before the story in a genre famous for making viewers cover their eyes. Writer-director Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” is instantly effective through its genuinely haunting images that promise an unnerving, engaging tale. Cregger’s follow-up to his acclaimed “Barbarian,” “Weapons” is a skillfully made stitching of multiple influences, from urban legends to recent trends in “elevated horror.” Imagine the fable of the Pied Piper with a satanic edge and it is clear what Cregger is going for. He could have aimed for more psychological depth, but as a thriller experience this is further proof that he is a filmmaker growing within a storytelling form natural to his talents.

As with many horror thrillers, the setting is one of those suburban American spaces where pristine homes are surrounded by dense woods. The story opens at precisely 2:17 a.m., when the silhouettes of children run out of their houses and into the void, scored to George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness.” Where did they go? That’s what so many petrified parents in town want to know. Nobody forced the children, who seem to glide with their arms wide open on eerie security camera footage. Deepening the mystery is how the missing children all belonged to the same classroom of elementary school teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner). Only one student stayed behind, Alex (Cary Christopher). Not surprisingly, much of the town’s suspicions fall on Justine, particularly from an enraged father, Archer (Josh Brolin). 

Cregger starts off with a great mystery, constructing it around images that feel taken out of folk myth or a Stephen King short story. While the cast is excellent, you could argue the real star is cinematographer Larkin Seiple, who brings a rich atmosphere to “Weapons.” This is not much of a jump scare movie, though it has some good ones. Instead, it is more focused on building a tense environment. Cregger first achieved real attention in 2022 with “Barbarian,” an engrossing entrapment thriller with one of those grossed out revelations hiding in a basement. For most of its running time “Weapons” lives in the world of its town, telling the story from the point of view of multiple key characters. The question of what happened to the kids is useful to keep the intrigue alive considering Cregger’s imagining of microcosmic lives doesn’t stray from the usual. Justine has drinking problems and amid the town’s brutal scrutinizing she hooks up with local cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich). Paul’s wife (June Diane Raphael) isn’t keen on the idea and berates her at a local liquor store.

Then, the narrative will switch to Paul and so forth, connecting other locals to the central mystery through their own trials like a local junkie, James (Austin Abrams), who sees a creepy clown-like figure in the woods. There’s lite comedy in how James, desperate to pawn whatever he steals to get a fix, obsesses over the $50,000 reward offered for information on the vanished children. The school headmaster, Marcus (Benedict Wong), also gets his own chapter (each one named after the corresponding character) and a terrible fate you may have seen spoiled already in the ads. Archer’s story is the second most important next to Justine, as the desperate father who has to learn to trust the teacher when she insists she knows nothing. Both will have to pair up to investigate the clues and face whatever dark force is behind the incident.

All the performances are strong, full of desperation, fear, irony and human absurdity, which elevates Cregger’s screenplay. When it seems like clear motivations are missing, the acting still keeps it convincing. Julia Garner brings out the necessary sense of nervous fear, when you can’t sleep at night because something heavy is weighing on you. We can believe these people have known each other all their lives. If there is subtext to the material it’s that we are a paranoid society prone to going haywire whenever traumatic or confusing events take place. In the future film scholars will no doubt look at movies like “Weapons” to comment on our post-pandemic mindset, etc. Or who knows? Cregger is not after precise allegories, he is clearly a filmmaker who loves composing strong images and working with good actors to build moods. Cregger even co-composed the score with Ryan and Hays Holladay, dabbling in ominous, screeching soundscapes.

The mystery of “Weapons” is the best part until it does go into full horror mode with a twist very familiar to fans of movies like “Hereditary,” or this year’s “Bring Her Back.” Paganism is suddenly taken very seriously in elevated horror, and Cregger goes that route, connecting the ominous clownish figure in the woods to what can be described as literal dark forces. In a way it saves the screenwriter from needing to concoct too much of an explanation, you just take it at face value. As with “Barbarian,” Cregger then loves to make the audience squirm with some needed gore involving self-mutilation, carnage and characters completely flipping out. Yet, there is no denying “Weapons” keeps your attention for its two hours. Horror can probe deeper, but as a sensory experience with great casting, this is a good popcorn escape to feel some chills during a heatwave.

“Weapons” releases Aug. 8 in theaters nationwide.