Weapons

I would just like to start by saying, what the fuck.

Easily one of the most entertaining horror movies I have seen in a good minute, I kinda already figured the quote unquote twist of the film by the title card but it still was such an engaging trip. I think pretty much everyone whether you watched the trailer or not went into this blind as a bat, where all you knew was a group of children mysteriously ran out of their homes at 2:17 AM and were never seen again, and the film follows the investigation through a series of vignettes centered on a character. Now the neat thing that I noticed by about the fourth or fifth vignette is almost every one of them could be a standalone horror movie, despite the fact that they overlap and interconnect. We mainly follow two characters throughout, Justine the teacher of the missing kids who seeks out answers on her own in the dumbest fashion I have seen since the Nic Cage Wicker Man, and Archer a parent of one of the missing kids who simultaneously has his own investigation yet also kickstarts this witch hunt towards Justine. We get pretty familiar with this town, it's inhabitants, all the strings attached between each character major or minor in almost Twin Peaks style, and the mostly unknown threat that inhabits the town. Like what a mystery to start off with but it only gets better from there! I had a wild time sitting down to watch this and boy do I feel like an ass not seeing it in theaters. Production wise it's all kinds of nifty with it's editing and camera movements, solid suburban atmosphere, nice music, not as much in your face scares as you might expect from a modern horror film but it has enough in terms of the suspense, mood, and pure ideas that get under your skin. What I never would have expected is this movie is perhaps intentionally perhaps unintentionally fucking hilarious, like I'm serious man I was laughing boisterously and frequently at certain points. You can tell the director had a sense of humor and wasn't afraid to use it. In terms of casting, pretty damn solid across the board. Julia Garner who I first saw in the newest Wolf Man movie shines very brightly still, like this poor girl cannot catch a break in these horror movies they just put her through the wringer in this, as her life just gets flipped upside down and she's trying her damndest just to make it out alive. Josh Brolin has that distraught parent down perfectly and his investigations kept me very interested, I believe this is the only horror movie I've seen him in but he did a very good job. Amy Madigan, what the fuck woman? Okay first of all fantastic performance! Second, my goddamn jaw dropped to the floor knowing she was Kevin Costner's wife in Field Of Dreams, that very lovely red haired lady plays a very different kind of redhead here. Third, if I'm being embarassingly honest...hear me out. In the words of George Lucas, I may have gone too far in a few places. Moving swiftly on! I very much enjoyed it, the ending was simulatenously awe inspiring and yet sudden, the style was sharp, the acting was pretty good all around, and while I may not watch it again anytime soon I'll be damned if I said I wasn't happy to see it. So 3.5 stars from me, 8/10, and next time I think we're landing squarely on body horror lane so stick around if your guts can handle it!