“This is a true story. It happened right here in my home town two years ago. A lot of people die in a lot of weird ways in this story. But you’re not going to find it in the news or anywhere like that, because the police and the top people in this town were, like so embarrassed that they weren’t able to solve it that they covered everything up. But if you come here and ask anyone, they’ll tell you the same thing I’m gonna tell you now. It started in my school … At 2:17 in the morning, every kid woke up, got out of bed, walked downstairs, and into the dark … and they never came back.”
Some people may think I’m crazy, but as a lifelong horror fan, I feel right now we are in the Golden Age of horror cinema. When you look at the box office this year and last, horror has simply been a dominant force, and I’m loving it. What’s even better is that it is new material that is raking in the money rather than seeing tired retreads of IPs that have been exhausted over and over again. Sinners, though it wasn’t my cup of tea, dominated the box office, and even though I’m not the film’s biggest fan, I still like seeing horror rake in the money. I’m loving that we’re getting all kinds of horror lately, where an indie slasher like Terrifier is going to be featured at Halloween Horror Nights, and we’re getting all sorts of experimental horror. For instance, later this year we’ll get Goodboy, a paranormal story told through the perspective of a dog. (Sure, it sounds silly, but I’m all for it.) This brings me to Barbarian. For me this has been my favorite horror film in the past five years, and that’s saying a lot, because there has been A LOT of good horror lately. From the moment I heard about Zach Cregger’s next film, Weapons, it immediately shot to the top of my list of most anticipated films. Now that the film has finally come out, is it worth the wait and the hype that surrounds it?
The setup is relatively simple. One night at 2:17 am, 17 students got out of their beds and ran out of their homes and disappeared. The next morning when the teacher went to her class, only one of her students showed. So what happened to these 17 kids?
The film doesn’t waste time and uses this as a jumping-off point for the story. The film has a very interesting narrative structure. A portion of the film focuses on one character at a time, and we get to see the mystery slowly unfold, getting more and more information as we progress from one character to the next. The film is a slow burn, but if you are patient, it just gets better and better, and by the end you start to understand the importance of why the story needed to be told this way.
It starts with us meeting Justine (Julia Garner). She’s the teacher and the one that many of the parents hold responsible for the disappearance. We get to see the torment and hell she’s put through as she herself seems at a loss for what happened, and she wants answers just as badly. I’ve been a fan of Julia Garner since her time on Ozark, and in Weapons she really shows us a very vulnerable side, and she is very much the emotional foundation in this film. Then we meet Archer (Josh Brolin), one of the distressed parents of the missing kids who is dissatisfied with the investigation and decides to take matters into his own hands. It’s no surprise that Brolin is great here, and when we see Garner and him together, the performances are just so good you can’t help but become emotionally vested in these characters.
Now, I’m going to be as spoiler-free as possible with this film, and for those considering seeing the film, do your best to try to avoid spoilers, because this film does take you for a ride with some genuine WTF moments. What I will say is that the first half of this film isn’t what I’d consider horror; it is definitely more of a crime thriller / mystery, but ever so slowly the horror creeps in, and when this gets into the horror territory it goes full-on into the horror and has some creepy moments that will stick with you.
One film this reminded me of a bit was Prisoners (2013), and frankly I feel it would be a great companion film with Weapons. There’s a character, Gladys (Amy Madigan) who gets introduced, and this is the point where I can’t decide what I think about this character, because to be honest, when she was introduced it somewhat subverted what I was expecting with this film. It’s yet another great performance, but it’s a character I wish we got more information about, and we don’t even meet him till around the midpoint of the film. Though the same can be said about Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), who is a cop in the small town who used to be a love interest to Justine. Cregger does such a good job at creating these characters and their connections that he just had me wanting more. This film could have been stretched out to be a TV mini-series, and I would have remained engrossed.
The cinematography from Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All at Once) is also pretty great here. There are many low-light shots where he shows us just enough to creep us the hell out. Then there are some fun tracking shots through the film, but the one sequence that stands out …The shot instantly reminded me of the sequence in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when he’s running home to try to beat his parents home … only in Weapons it is done as a horror sequence. I frigging loved this moment.
Video
Weapons is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The ultra-high-definition 2160p image is arrived at by an HEVC codec with an average bitrate of 75 mbps. The ultra-high-definition image presentation is loaded with atmosphere. It’s nice to see that more filmmakers are shooting in native 4K and also using 4K intermediates. If you’re using 35mm film, you’re covered. What has been more the case is a digital film is shot in 2K and/or the digital intermediary is also 2K. That makes these UHD releases nothing more than upconverts. More than HD, but not true UHD. A film like this would have benefited by the grain found in film, because this movie screams organic through and through. Black levels are pretty solid delivering plenty of shadow definition. The HDR bumps up the contrast as well as the color. When we find ourselves in the daylight, colors often pop, sometimes appearing hyper-real. The Gladys character is described a lot in the bonus features as a peacock (and yes, real peacocks are Devil-spawn level evil) and they’re talking about her clothing choices. The colors are vivid yet slightly off and over-bright. The level of detail adds to the textures so that the character truly pops on the film. Many of the dark scenes are intentionally warm, adding a yellow pale that I think strengthens the foreboding atmosphere you encounter here. There is some CG-enhancement that betrays itself in this level of detail like the kids running through glass windows. It’s a practical effect, but it has some CGI assistance that I felt wasn’t necessary at all.
Audio
The Dolby Atmos audio presentation defaults to 7.1. The surrounds couldn’t be called aggressive at all, but there is a nice creepiness that certainly makes you feel uneasy. The surrounds deliver subtle little mood kinds of things, and what’s behind you will make your flesh crawl at times. The score is reserved, only pulling out the stops for the emotional beats and a few fake scare jumps. Dialog cuts through just fine. The subs aren’t quite as deep as you might expect or hope for, but they do add significant depth from time to time.
Special Features
There is only the UHD disc here. The extras are brief so that the bandwidth goes to the image and audio presentations.
Director Zach Creeger – Making Horror Personal: (6:15) The director talks about some personal experiences that shaped the writing of the script, with the largest being his grief on the death of a good friend. Cast members add their first thoughts when they encountered the story.
Weapons – The Cast Of weapons: (8:52) Here you get profiles of the main characters with a lot of input from the people who played them.
Weapons – Texture Of Terror: (6:49) While there is a good amount of behind-the-scenes footage here, it comes out like a promo piece. The soundbites appear scripted and short.
Final Thoughts:
I feel like I need to watch this film a second time before I decide where I rank it with other films this year. Right now it’s certainly in my top five films I’ve seen this year. I still feel Life of Chuck is this year’s best film … Though Weapons may be the best horror film of the year despite some other heavy hitters that have come out. I know some people will walk away disappointed, and that’s OK. Zach Cregger definitely took some creative chances with this film, and for me it elevated it. How Seven elevated the thriller genre and showed how great a detective story can still be, I feel Weapons does the same for horror. Like I mentioned before, it’s a good time to be a horror fan.
Parts of this review were written by Gino Sassani
