10/12 ForReel Score | 4/5 Stars

These days, kids are forced to grow up faster than they should. I’ll never forget the look on my mom’s face when she picked me up from school on the day of the Sandy Hook shooting. I was born a year or so after 9/11, and I’ve grown up enveloped in the paranoia of contemporary Americana. Our collective consciousness after repeated national tragedies has metamorphosed from “love thy neighbor” into “me, myself, and I,” and we’ve compartmentalized those feelings into weaponizing ourselves and each other. In his second feature film since Barbarian, comedian-turned-director Zach Cregger’s Weapons tackles the fallout that comes after tragedy, and the societal rot that’s been eating away at Americans for decades.

Told non-linearly from the perspectives of six residents of the fictional town of Maybrook, Weapons follows the aftermath of seventeen children who disappeared from their homes at the same exact time. Comparisons to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia are apt on a surface level, but this is far more akin to something like Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners in terms of how thoroughly upsetting the subject matter is. Images of grief-stricken small towns or heated city hall meetings aren’t exactly breaking new ground, but it’s the execution and repetition of these images that makes Weapons so compelling. Cregger’s methods of switching plotlines is far more Pulp Fiction than Magnolia, but the seamlessness is unbelievably clever. The sprawl leads to a plot that simultaneously widens and tightens as the mystery unravels, and there wasn’t a moment where I wasn’t caught up in the intrigue.

It’s hard to talk about Weapons without talking about Jordan Peele, who not only paved the way for comedians like Cregger to pivot to horror but ditched his managers after losing the bidding war for Weapons’ script. And, if I were Jordan Peele, I would be punching the air right about now. Between Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, there have been some seriously audacious horror films, but I don’t think that either film is as narratively strong as Weapons. There was never a point where Cregger failed to keep me itching for the next piece of the puzzle. On top of the excellent storytelling at play, Cregger’s iron fisted sense of tonal control is just as admirable. In almost an instant, Weapons will have you trembling and giggling in either fear, amusement, or a twisted mix of the two.

Even if Zach Cregger’s tonal balancing act had my theater and I laughing our asses off, it also had us gasping and gawking at Weapons’ shocking twists and turns in equal measure. I can’t say that I was particularly scared by Weapons, but Cregger’s knack for tension, release, and fakeouts had me beaming from ear to ear with a big toothy grin; I don’t think there was a moment where I wasn’t either smiling or slackjawed. Maybe I’ve accrued the stomach for horror, but I’ll take the slow burn of Weapons over a jumpscare parade at any day of the week. That’s not to say there aren’t jumpscares in Weapons, and not all of them hit, but I think Cregger’s emphasis on creating a looming sense of dread is what makes Weapons so effective.

Whereas Barbarian was a contained horror piece about gentrification and toxic masculinity, Cregger’s grander commentary on American violence reads like a condemnation of the laziness of government officials in dealing with these types of tragedies, particularly that of school shootings and lack of action taken regarding gun control. I don’t think Weapons endorses vigilante justice or anything, but it’s certainly telling that a parent-teacher conference at a gas station gets more done than a statewide police investigation. Weapons feels real because schools, small towns, and America at large, aren’t safe from the ripples of violence that continue to tear through this country.

If you’re gonna attempt to pull off a concept this ambitious, then you’re gonna need the cast for it, and good lord did this ensemble deliver. Led by Julia Garner and supported by Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, and Amy Madigan, Weapons reads more like a horror-adjacent mystery-drama rather than outright horror. There are certainly some gory moments, but Cregger is much more interested in exploring these characters rather than just their fates. Every character (particularly Garner) is far more complex than they let on, leaving for fantastic moments of either unhinged lunacy or emotional poignancy. Cregger’s play with perspective helps humanize his characters in positive and negative lights, as you could go from loving to hating a character and vice versa.

Compared to his gonzo debut Barbarian, Cregger is taking quite the big swings, which I’ll always respect, but some ideas definitely get lost in the shuffle of moving pieces every now and then. I like vague, but Cregger leaves threads that are either too vague or may be tied up upon a rewatch, which I have already purchased my ticket for. I don’t want everything to be spelled out for me, but sometimes Cregger plays his cards too close to the chest. Weapons is a smart movie, and maybe part of the fun of a good mystery is putting the pieces together on your own. It’s a mindfuck that’s sure to only get better with subsequent rewatches, while also being completely uncompromised.

Zach Cregger has come an insanely long way from his comedy troupe’s self-titled sketch series The Whitest Kids U’Know, and in the time since he’s turned out to be one of the most unique voices in contemporary horror cinema. It’s one thing to be able to get a good scare, but Cregger is a genuinely smart filmmaker, and Weapons only proves that directorial intelligence. It may not be a frightfest for people who are looking for cheap thrills on a Friday night, but that doesn’t mean the thrills aren’t there in spades. For better or worse, Weapons is a very busy film, and I honestly wish that it was even longer. It’s only up from here for Cregger, and this has made me all the more excited for his upcoming reboot of the Resident Evil franchise now that I know what he’s truly capable of. If people weren’t already on the hype train after Barbarian, then Weapons is sure to have all eyes on Cregger for the near future.

Movie Review: Luca's Non-Spoiler Take On "Weapons"