First impressions of Weapons
Zach Cregger's impressively ambitious horror film is filled with allusions to his influences. But do all of these ideas cohere into something meaningful?
Weapons opens with the testimony of a young girl:
Almost all of us, hearing that, might jump to the conclusion—or at least guess find it likely—that what follows is going to be a way to explore our cultural struggle with mass shootings, especially school shootings.
And what follows does indeed encourage us to think in that direction.
As the parents of the missing children grieve and rage, and as the school administrators and faculty grieve and defend themselves from accusations, we follow the experiences of several individuals adjacent to the disappearance:
- Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), the traumatized teacher, who seems to really care, but who also has some bad habits that make her a serious suspect;
- Archer (Josh Brolin), the traumatized father of a missing boy whose explosive temper makes him seem dangerous;
- the school superintendent Marcus (Benedict Wong), who, trying to remain sane while communicating with families, faculty, and students, may concern us with how he prioritizes boundaries over shows of empathy;
- Paul, a local policeman (Alden Ehrenreich) whose marriage has become complicated due to his history of alcoholism . . . and more;
- James (Austin Abrams), an unhoused young man who, rattled by drug addiction; stumbles into a situation that will only make things worse; and
- Alex (Cary Christopher), the one student in Gandy’s class who, though traumatized, did not disappear.
How many times have I mentioned trauma so far? We’re layers deep in it right away in Weapons.
One by one, the stories of these troubled characters are revealed to us, and we stay busy trying to piece together possible explanations for the mystery of the missing children. Our attention is likely to fixate on Justine’s weaknesses: her aggressive flirtation with Paul, her reliance on liquor for solace, and her compulsion to violate professional boundaries in order to care for her students. Or we might worry about Archer, as he’s prone to nightmares, one of which involves a massive machine gun. And then there’s Officer Paul, who is having troubles with his marriage and more. Frankly, we could build a good case for almost any of these characters being a suspect.
But Weapons isn’t interested in a conventional solution to a mystery.
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