Weapons Review

By Flora Irvine-Hall

Image via Screen Rant

Let's place our bets on how many people will go as Aunt Gladys for Halloween this year

 If you love complex protagonists, a spooky mystery, funny dialogue, gore and c*nty little bobs, then you’ll love Zach Greggor’s latest flick, Weapons.

The film begins when an elementary school teacher, Justine, (played by Julia Garner) walks into her classroom in the morning only to find that all but one child is missing. It turns out that in the middle of the night every other child got out of bed, walked out of their homes and into the darkness.

Fingers are pointed and tensions rise, but the truth is even darker than you could imagine.

Image via IndieWire

An interesting fact about this film is that there was originally an entirely different cast, featuring the likes of Pedro Pascal. But due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, nearly every ensemble actor had to pull out.

While this must have been incredibly stressful for Greggor, it ended up working in his favour, because the cast in this film is absolutely stellar.

Josh Brolin is fantastic is his role as Archer, a grieving and brooding father with many anti-hero like tendencies.

Image via Radio Times

Julia Garner also feels very natural on the screen and does a great job of playing a rather messy but loving teacher.

Cary Christopher, who plays Alex, the only child who hasn’t gone missing, is spectacular and will leave your heart bleeding and crying with how cute he is.

Image via People.com

But the stand out performance has to be Amy Madigan, who plays the films ultra creepy villain, Aunt Gladys. She’s both hilarious and petrifying and feels like an old-school villain from the 80s in the best possible way.

Most of that is down to the talent of  Madigan as an actress but another element of what makes Aunt Gladys a standout villain is her character design. With her messy red lips, incredibly questionable bangs and whacky outfits, you won’t know whether to scream in terror or roar with laughter whenever she’s on screen. Trish Summerville, the costume designer and Leo Satkovich, the head makeup artist, definitely deserve their flowers.

Image via Screen Rant

If I were to describe Weapons in one word, it would be fun. If your type of horror if the type where you can nervously and hysterically laugh with your besties, then this film is made for you.

And even if you prefer something a little more serious, you’ll probably still get some enjoyment out of this film. There’s themes of grief and death, metaphors for sexual abuse and control and a strong narrative about family.

Image via Geek Girl Authority

However, without wanting to give any major spoilers away, the film doesn’t answer every single question and leaves some lose ends which a lot of viewers won’t like.  They’re not exactly plot holes, but if I was being nit-picky, I’d want more explanation and backstory from certain aspects of the film.

Having said that, if you love camp villains that look like they could star in both Ru Paul’s Drag Race and a Road Dahl novel, this one’s for you.