The reviews are in, and Weapons has hit its target with film critics.
Written and directed by Zach Cregger (Barbarian), the mystery-horror film tells the story of school kids who all disappear from their homes at the exact same time. Weapons has received a rare 100 percent score at Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising it as a “genre-bender” that “dedicated cinephiles will be rocked by.” The New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures movie will be released in theaters on Aug. 8.
Cast members include Julia Garner as the students’ teacher, Justine Gandy; Josh Brolin as Archer Graff, a furious parent; Alden Ehrenreich as Paul Morgan, a police officer with a past history with Justine; Austin Abrams as Anthony, a drug addict and thief; Cary Christopher as Alex Lilly, the only child from Justine’s class who did not vanish; and Benedict Wong as Marcus, the school principal.
Weapons is a “righteous, fully actualized genre-bender in which writer-director Zach Cregger hones Barbarian’s blend of unbearable tension and dark humor to a new level of razor-sharpness,” writes Tom Jorgensen (IGN Movies).
Eric Eisenberg (CinemaBlend) raves, “It’s intimate while also being epic, it’s scary while expertly utilizing humor as punctuation, and even the most dedicated cinephiles will be rocked by its surprises.”
Edward Douglas (The Weekend Warrior) exclaims that Cregger “may have made the most ‘WTF?!’ movie ever,” but concedes that watching it was an “enjoyable experience.”
“It’s worth seeing for its bold aim from Cregger, a filmmaker still very much on the rise and filled with tremendous promise,” begins Matt Neglia (Next Best Picture), “but one that may leave many viewers as frustrated and divided as the characters in the film.”
Chris Tilly (Dexerto) notes that “Weapons does everything a good horror movie should … it grips, confounds, terrifies, and provokes in equal measure, while also managing to entertain for every second of its runtime.”
Josh Brolin in WeaponsNew Line Cinema
Cregger, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, J.D. Lifshitz, and Raphael Margules serve as the producers of Weapons, with Michelle Morrissey and Brolin executive producing. Artisans include director of photography Larkin Seiple, production designer Tom Hammock, editor Joe Murphy, costume designer Trish Summerville, and music composers Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay, and Cregger.
The first trailer for Weapons dropped on April 29. “This is a true story that happened in my town,” declares the voice of one of the students. Miss Gandy arrives at school on a normal Wednesday, only to find that all of her kids are missing. As it turns out, they all woke up at 2:17 a.m. that day and walked into the darkness, never to be seen again.
Might Weapons be an Oscar contender later this year? Horror movies like The Substance, Poor Things, and Get Out all won trophies in the past several years, so clearly it’s a genre that Academy members aren’t afraid to watch and reward.