Student review: Tackling latest horror “Weapons”

CADEN VELAZQUEZ

Staff Writer

At first glance, the movie “Weapons,” directed by Zach Cregger, dives into a strange and chilling non-linear story told from the perspectives of multiple characters.

At first glance, I was rather confused by the premise of the film and even by watching the trailer. I expected it to be more on the straightforward supernatural side of horror, but it turned out to be more on the side of a non-linear story usually associated with Quentin Tarantino movies like “Reservoir Dogs” or “Pulp Fiction,” where it’s purposely told out of order, but still relates to one main plot point.

From a visual standpoint, I thought the movie had incredible production value. The shots of the school and multiple drone shots of the many houses seen throughout the movie are very well put together. 

However, with a $38 million production budget, I was slightly disappointed that a few more shots weren’t properly lit, as scenes involving the main house seemed very dull and lifeless. Which can be an easy tactic to induce fear, but this can all depend on the mood of the viewer.

The plot was quite confusing upon first watch as it’s told out of order by multiple characters who all happen to be involved in the story, but to summarize, the movie concerns a classroom of 18 children who at 2:17 a.m, one night got out of bed, opened the front door and disappeared into the night. 

All but one child remains, a young boy named Alex Lily, who appears unaware of what occurred. This leads to eventual personal attacks directed at the missing student’s teacher, Justine Gandy, by the parents of the children. 

Thematically, the movie takes on a very similar setting to many Stephen King and David Cronenberg movies in that it takes place in a small town where there aren’t many main characters or many places to remember for later. I praise the movie for that, as it would take the audience’s attention away from understanding the plot and making sense of said plot. 

There’s not much graphic violence in this movie, which was the most shocking to me because the movie is rated R and recent horror movies such as such as “The Mouse Trap” (2024), “Terrifier 3” (2024) or “Evil Dead Rise” (2023) seem to rely on gore and shock value to make audiences shudder instead of relying on narrative and emotion. 

For me, this movie felt like a horror version of “Pulp Fiction” in that it’s told from the perspective of multiple characters with the intent of telling one whole story but from different character viewpoints. 

I praise the movie for its diverse taste in structure as I can only name four horror movies with the same “multiple perspective” style, which would be “Creepshow” (1982), “The Willies” (1990), “Lost Highway” (1997) and “eXistenZ” (1999).  It is refreshing to see that this rarity of horror movies can still be produced. 

Another point of interest I’d praise is most certainly the music score, which doesn’t rely heavily on shrieking violin noises to cue to the audience that someone’s going to die. 

Instead, the movie does the old trope of relying on atmosphere and buildup with limited music, which is a very nice reference to early slasher films such as “Black Christmas” (1974) or “Deep Red” (1975). I also noticed the movie has a few bits and pieces of comedy horror alluding to “Evil Dead 2” (1987), which made me laugh quite a few times.

There were a few things I didn’t like about the movie, with the first being its runtime of two hours and eight minutes.  In my own experience, supernatural or mystery movies for that matter, should be told within 100-110 minutes but no longer than that.

Understandably, “Creepshow” was also two hours and had three different stories to tell all within one plot, but “Weapons” to me didn’t seem like it required six different stories to tell within those two hours, as I felt it was simply cramming those stories to tell one because most felt they lasted only 20 minutes each. 

Given that there are very few main characters in this movie, it would leave the audience confused as to why it kept repeating what we already know about said characters. In other words, it would’ve been better if the movie were straightforward and focused on Justine and how she’d figure out how to track her missing students. 

To tie this all together for UMW students, I say it’s the perfect time to view “Weapons” since autumn is already upon us and what better time to sit in from the cold air and watch a scary movie or two.

I’d recommend this highly not only to those who like horror movies, but those who enjoy a great mystery story and enjoy piecing together the many different perspectives to draw a conclusive conclusion.