Weapons

Review: An original film doing well in 2025? Both critically and commercially? I really do love to see it. Alright so I’ve actually seen this film twice and that was for the best. I really didn’t like it the first time, but I enjoyed it significantly more the second time. If you’re unfamiliar, the horror mystery follows a town dealing with the disappearance of 17 out of 18 students in a third grade class and the repercussions it has on their families & community. The film is broken up into different parts from the POV from different characters involved in the story. The ensemble cast features Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, Cary Christopher, & Amy Madigan with each performance bringing a very interesting dynamic to the movie. The highlight performances to me were Josh Brolin & Austin Abrams, with Abrams’ segment (‘James’) being my favorite. I’m extremely hesitant to tell you anything about it because this is a great blind watch, but I’ll give two warnings. It was a little more horror-y than I was expecting (I was thinking more of a thriller) and it also had some moments that were a little more gory than I was anticipating.

High: So when I first watched it my low was going to be the fact that every time the film switched POVs, I felt as though it lost some momentum and had to start from scratch. But on rewatch it became it’s biggest strength, because I realized that the film managed to very effectively draw my interest all the way back in during each segment. Another high is that movies like this and the discourse surrounding it just make me so happy because I love movies. Woohoo! Go movies!

Low: So since my original low is out, I’d have to say that the most peculiar choice to me in this film was the tone. It was super eerie & serious, but also got strangely silly at times. Especially towards the climax it got a little goofy? This definitely felt like a purposeful choice by writer-director Zach Cregger, so I totally respect that, but I had to put something here. The flip side & positive of this goofiness was that the film feeling extremely self aware, with the characters onscreen often asking questions aloud that the audience is thinking.

Rating: 8/10