THE ENEMY WITHIN (WEAPONS)

-


WEAPONS

What would it be like if Paul Thomas Anderson made a horror movie?

It's an intriguing notion that sits in the back of your head while watching Zach Cregger's supernatural mystery horror 'Weapons'.

Cregger's film may not be an Anderson movie but it's got a multi layered narrative that tells its horror story from several perspectives.

The central premise is what happens to a community when all but one child in a third grade class disappear overnight?

The class in question is taught by Julia Garner's Justine Gandy in the Pennsylvanian town of Maybrook.

With no obvious explanation for the childrens' disappearance, wild conspiracy theories abound. 

Josh Brolin's angry parent Archer Graff leads unproven accusations that Justine must have had a central role.

As the town starts to look at Justine for some kind of explanation, uncomfortable truths start to surface about her past and her messy personal life.

This impacts Alden Ehrenreich's married cop Paul Morgan and gives the school principal, Benedict Wong's Marcus Miller cause for concern.

Justine is puzzled as to why just one pupil, Cary Christopher's Alex Lilly didn't disappear and is keen to understand it.

Marcus is also slightly unsettled by having to increasingly deal with Amy Madigan's Gladys, an eccentric older woman who says she is Alex's older relative.

What writer director Cregger concocts is a genuinely unsettling supernatural horror tale that could easily have been penned by Stephen King.

'Weapons' is much more than that, though.

It's a multi-layered character study a la Anderson or Robert Altman, with intersecting events in much the same manner as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 'Amores Perros'.

Certain scenes are seen from different characters' perspectives.

And if it hadn't been for Ryan Coogler's multi-Oscar nominated, musical horror thrill ride 'Sinners,' there might have been a lot more noise about 'Weapons' this awards season and its fresh take on the supernatural mystery.

The film would certainly have deserved that kind of attention as it is thrillingly directed by Cregger who, along with his cinematographer Larkin Swipe, has a good eye for striking imagery.

It is intelligently stitched together top by film editor Joe Murphy.

Garner, Brolin, Ehrenreich, Wong, Christopher, Toby Huss as the mystified police chief and Austin Abrams as James, a homeless heroin addict who crosses paths with Paul, turn in very strong performances.

And the ever so slight Best Supporting Actress Oscar favourite Amy Madigan relishes the chance to eye roll im the movie's showiest role.

It's a huge compliment to say 'Weapons' feels like it could have been created by Stephen King.

Bit now Cregger has one hell of a task ahead of him - trying to better a smart movie that is fantastically entertaining.

('Weapons' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on August 8, 2025)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CATFISHING IN THE USA (I LOVE MY DAD)

-
Image
Theatre and film is full of comedies where people pretend to be someone of the opposite sex just to get close to someone they love. Shakespeare was very fond of this narrative device, deploying it in plays like ' As You Like It ' and ' Twelfth Night '. On the big screen, Billy Wilder's ' Some Like It Hot ' and Sydney Pollack's ' Tootsie ' are probably the best known examples of it. Now water-director-actor James Morosini has come up with a 21st Century twist on it. © Magnolia Pictures 'I Love You Dad' is a digital age story about someone assuming the online identity of an individual from the opposite sex. Based, Morosini claims, on an actual event in his life, it casts Patton Oswalt as a father who is estranged from his twentysomething son Franklin, played by the director. This is self inflicted.  Oswalt's character Chuck is a screw up who has had a very acrimonious divorce from Franklin's mother, Amy Landecker's Diane. © Magn...
Read more

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION (TETRIS)

-
Image
We all must have seen Tetris at some stage in our lives. No? It was a game invented by Alexey Pajitnov, a software engineer in 1985 when the Soviets ruled Russia. Compared to today's games, the graphics were pretty basic involving players trying to fit pieces of falling blocks from the top of the screen to create walls. © Apple TV+& Imagine Entertainment It was also hugely addictive. A huge success in its homeland, Tetris would become a videogame phenomenon across the world, thanks to the explosion of hand held gaming devices. However it was also the subject of a messy battle over arcade, home computer and hand held rights involving the media tycoon Robert Maxwell's Mirrorsoft, a London firm called Andromeda Software, an American firm called Broderbund, Nintendo, Atari and Sega. That battle is the focus of Jon S Baird's Apple TV+ movie 'Tetris' which has a lot of fun with the story. © Apple TV+& Imagine Entertainment Taron Egerton is cast as Henk Rogers, a T...
Read more

GIMME SHELTER (LEAD ME HOME)

-
Image
At the end of the Oscar nominated documentary short 'Lead Me Home,' comes a sobering caption. It reads: "On any given night, over half a million Americans experience homelessness." That will shock some people. It might not shock others. But it's half a million people too many. The emotion that sentence should stir in all who read it is shame. In a country as prominent and proud as the United States, it should also be disturbing to read another caption at the start of the film which says in the past five years Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle have declared states of emergency around the scale of homelessness. Renting in all three cities has become unaffordable for big chunks of society and it isn't unique to the United States. Whether it is Canada, Australia, Argentina, Zimbabwe, India or France, the sight of people sleeping rough isn't uncommon and it isn't good enough. No-one should be forced to live on the streets. But Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk...
Read more