‘Weapons’ has all the pieces for a horror hit—then forgets how to use them

Director Zach Cregger recently returned to the horror genre with his second installment, “Weapons”. A nail-biting film that builds nonstop suspension until the final act. The movie has been praised for its original ideas and intense horror. 

Naturally, as a horror fan, I was ecstatic to have a reason to return to the movie theaters and see what all the buzz was about. I wish I could say that this movie delivered on all accounts for me, but unfortunately it ended up falling pretty flat for my liking. 

However, it is important to understand what the movie did right and why it merited such a positive response before digging deeper and finding out where it came up short.  

The best aspect of the movie and what I have seen praised the most is the performances, which are truly phenomenal. 

Josh Brolin does what he does best and smolders in quiet contemplation a lot, while Julia Garner ranges anywhere from amazing to solid. There were a few scenes where the line delivery felt like they were still at the table read, although that felt more like the directors choice more than Garner’s ability. 

The performances that stood out to me the most was Austin Abrams and Cary Christoher. Abrams plays James, a homeless junkie that is always looking for his next score, and when I had only ever seen him play the goofy sidekick in John Greene’s “Paper Towns”, I have to admit that I was thoroughly impressed. 

Christopher takes on the large role of Alex Lilly. Given the fact that Christopher is only 10 years old, taking on such an important main character means that a lot of the screen time is devoted to him. 

Typically its easy to see the actor behind the character when the main character is a kid, but Christopher manages to put on a truly convincing role that ends up carrying a lot of the later half of the movie. 

That is about where the movie runs out of steam for me. Though good things could still be noted about the cinematography and editing of the film. 

The jump scares were also handled really well and they actually serviced the story too, rather than being a quick and loud flash to make sure the audience still has a pulse. Although the scariest jump scare for me was the random Justin Long cameo. Other than that, the movie is either inconsistent or simply bland. 

The biggest problem for me is the pacing. The movie is broken up into chapters with each chapter following a certain character. This messes up two things: The movie is now way too slow, and now there are too many characters to be invested in. 

It doesn’t matter how good the plot is, if it takes 20 minutes for the next development or interesting story beat to happen, people will lose interest. 

Also, instead of having one or two main characters to follow, by breaking up the movie into vignettes we end up following side characters for a long time, and just waiting for the story to get back to the people we actually care about. 

There are strengths to the chapter style storytelling. Mainly that it allows for a lot more suspense and confusion to be built because we are left with a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. 

However, this does not always make for the most compelling watch because now the audience is watching a plot line that doesn’t interest them while waiting for the other characters story to continue. 

The plot is really hindered by the pacing, and this causes the movie to end up leaving some loose ends unresolved. The ending takes an ambiguous approach (spoilers in link!) that leaves just about everyone unsatisfied. 

Again, there are ways to make an ambiguous ending work and then there are ways to make it frustrating for the audience to watch. Unfortunately for “Weapons”, the movie chooses the latter. 

The movie is not a complete bust. The original ideas and constant suspense are good at keeping viewers engaged and there is definitely an audience that would enjoy this movie, but there are things that hold it back from being the smashing success that will be remembered in the annals of horror history. 

Noah Schlarman, executive editor

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