In the Flesh: Weapons

There’s a particular rhythm to most good Stephen King stories. The intentional layering of small-town tensions. The probing of everyday human failings and foibles, sometimes in pursuit of true monstrosity, sometimes just because, well, that’s what people are like. Weapons, Zach Cregger’s sophomore feature, may not be a King adaptation, but it bears all the hallmarks of American horror’s grand old man. Weapons is a kind of straightforward fairy tale about a child-eating witch, Gladys (Amy Madigan), the community she devastates, and the young boy, her nephew, Alex (Cary Christopher), who outwits and defeats her. It sketches small-town life with authenticity, if not much depth, and its mosaic opening half builds a sense of momentum and unfolding mystery that leads into a terrific back half, laden with dread and isolation and spilling over into a kinetic and oddly hilarious finale which does a lot to wash out the sour taste of Barbarian’s dismal and poorly choreographed final act.

And on the subject of choreography, Weapons is full of competently framed and disturbingly relentless violence. The final sequence in which a horde of magically compelled children pursues Aunt Gladys through the yards and houses of their neighbors is the clear standout, but the life or death struggle between hot mess grade school teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) and her weaponized boss, Marcus (Benedict Wong), has a lot to recommend it. Archer Graff (Josh Brolin) continually hurting his fist by punching people in the face is a great recurring gag, as is weaponized addict James (Austin Abrams) popping up over and over again to attack him after being laid out. Cinematographer Larkin Seiple does lovely work with suburban exteriors, sketching a believable version of Maybrook through fisheye panoramas of quiet streets and patches of untended forest. 

There are a few things here that flatly do not work. Archer’s vision of an assault rifle hovering over his family home is absurd. His character in general, in spite of Brolin’s game performance, is a bit thin, though he has good chemistry with Garner and provides a good foil to Alden Ehrenreich’s moronic alcoholic cop, one of the film’s highlight performances. The material around Marcus’s home life with his husband, Terry (Clayton Farris), feels both a bit too silly and also troublingly mean-spirited, given that they’re the only remotely queer characters. The little visual reference to The Shining is a clear case of someone getting too big for their britches as well, but the electrifying and punishingly sad game of cat and mouse between Madigan and Christopher more than makes up for the occasional fumble. Weapons may not be a modern classic, but it’s the kind of thing a healthy film ecosystem should put out on the regular.