Weapons

Weapons is not your typical horror film. It’s more of an enigmatic drama, punctuated with bursts of absurd, pitch-black humor, then pitch-black horror. When every student in a grade school class vanishes without a trace, suspicion and fury fall on the bewildered teacher (a heartbreaking Julia Garner), with one especially destructive, rage-fueled father (Josh Brolin) leading the charge. The film opens with a chilling child’s voiceover, setting the stage for a series of disquieting moments that only grow more unsettling as the story unfolds.

The unease creeps in from every angle: the cinematography, the sound design, the score, and especially the performances, which bristle with grief, anger, and raw humanity. Some scenes are so bizarre they provoke uneasy laughter, sandwiched between moments of dread and revulsion. Jump scares are limited, and it's frightening in an innermost and profoundly heady way. 

Structurally, the film takes bold risks, unfolding in six chapters from six different perspectives, each adding new layers to the mystery. The symbolism becomes increasingly pronounced, sometimes heavy-handed, like the surreal image of an enormous automatic rifle floating above a house. Then comes Gladys (Amy Madigan), a stern yet magnetic presence who conjures dark, measured authority, and pushes the film into even more disturbing territory.

The narrative builds toward a finale that lands with a crack like a snapped branch, culminating in one of the most bizarre, comical and ultimately grisly scenes in recent memory. It leaves you breathless, disoriented, and questioning everything the film deliberately leaves unsaid.

This is a film to be studied. Beneath its surreal and grotesque imagery lies a haunting allegory about school shootings, grief, loss, and America’s obsession with violence. With its hidden symbolism and cryptic Easter eggs (the recurring number 217 alone carries volumes of meaning), Weapons demands repeat viewings. When it finds the cult following it deserves, expect calls for a prequel to unravel its multitudes of mysteries.