Seventeen out of 18 children studying in the same class in an American town vanish one night at the same time. What happened to them? Why is Alex (Cary Christopher) not among them?
Alex’s house, occupied by his elderly aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) apart from his parents (Whitmer Thomas and Callie Schuttera), is a good place for the police to start. They do drop in, but their investigation is cursory. They are similarly lax in talking to the other parents.
There are no clue beyond spooky doorbell camera footage of the children flying out their homes in identical fashion. The image – the first of many gorgeous visuals by cinematographer Larkin Seiple – lingers.
Suspicion mounts about Justine (Julia Garner), the young teacher of the missing students. Although Justine has the support of the school principal (Benedict Wong), a missing boy’s father Archer (Josh Brolin) leads a campaign to expose Justine as a witch.
The evidence is scanty. Everybody is looking in the wrong place.
This wilful oversight suits Zach Cregger just fine. The Barbarian writer-director’s new movie Weapons is excellent with creeping scares, nightmarish sequences and grisly gore. Cregger dips into a compendium of horror movie tropes while also toying with perspective. By replaying the same event from different viewpoints, Cregger stretches out the suspense of what has actually happened to the children, and why.
A motiveless Pied Piper appears to be at work in luring the children – the film’s most compelling idea. There is no shortage of chills at the right places, as well as ample evidence of craft, especially in the terrifying night scenes.
But Weapons is also too cold and clinical to make its revelation stick. The tragedy of young children wrenched from their families and weaponised for a demonic purpose scarcely matters, rendering the ending flat. Austin Abrams provides comic relief as a drug addict; the climax supplies possibly unintentional laughs.
The lack of involvement or even bare-minimum interest by nearly all the affected parents beggars belief. Among the actors, Cary Christopher is wonderful as the beleaguered Alex and Amy Madigan is terrific as his eccentric aunt.
