Review| Weapons (2025) "The story is told with its own originality and still manages to stand out from its influences, standing on its own two feet"
- Welson Pereira de Lima
- Aug 7
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 10
Weapons, directed by Zach Cregger (Barbarian), presents a narrative intertwined with the perspectives of various characters involved in the plot's events, the sudden disappearance of 17 children from a single classroom.
The film primarily focuses on the character Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), who is the teacher of this specific class, in which only one student shows up on the day of the collective disappearance.
Her point of view is the main one, and the camera makes sure to put us in her eyes with a steadycam. We are introduced to the main characters who will accompany us during these days of suspense and horror, following some of their journeys. We see the hostile glances of the townspeople, the pitying looks of coworkers, their vices, and their fears.
In the second chapter of the story, we are introduced to Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), a resident of the city, a character driven by rage against the teacher and the pain of his son's disappearance. The camera angles repeat his journey and chance encounters with the characters involved in the plot.
Here we have a view of someone who has a different perspective on the disappearances and makes a point of expressing his feelings of pain and anger.
The narrative expands through the perspectives of six characters in episodic format, but always remaining in the same time frame as the other plots develop. We see a character doing something, and later we see him doing that same thing from his point of view or from the point of view of the current plot being developed.
The setting has a charm comparable to IT (2017) a small town with borders limited to dense forests, which makes the air of mystery more contained at a claustrophobic level.
It's hard to say much about the plot without spoilers, but the final act is a surprise like no other in horror movies. The mysterious character played by Amy Madigan steals the show with her evil presence and charisma, depending on the environment she finds herself in.
The soundtrack does its part with drum rhythms, which is quite different from the violins and keyboards typical of current horror movies.
The cinematography follows the pattern of green, brown, and gray tones, bringing the woody tone of films from the last decade. The camera angles make the difference. A very well-done police chase must have been rehearsed a lot to work, since, as mentioned at the beginning, the Steadycam is present in following certain key points of the characters whose story the chapter is telling.
The year 2025 is well represented by horror, whether franchise films or originals like this one. Every audience has its tastes, which are duly represented with respect to legacies and influences, even in this one, which brings a little bit of Silent Hill Homecoming, Evil Dead, and IT. The story is told with its own originality and still manages to stand out from its influences, standing on its own two feet and breathing in its own environment.
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