Weapons

Every parent want their child to live a good childhood, where they enjoy their lives, meet other children, get to learn new things in life. Parents also want to be able to give children a safe home, where no child could ever be harmed or could be put into any kind of danger. But what if your child completely disappear and you have no idea what happened? This has to be every parents worst nightmare and we all hope no family should go through this. Unfortunately, this is what happened in the 2013 American thriller Prisoners from director Denis Villeneuve ( director of the recent Dune movie adaptations ). A very well made thriller that tell the story of 2 families known as The Dover Family and The Birch Family celebrating Thanksgiving weekend. Both families have a daughter who suddenly disappear. Family father Kelly Dover ( Hugh Jackman ) decides to find out the truth not trusting the police and do his own investigation. This causes a lot of problems for Detective Loki ( Jake Gyllenhall ) who works on this case. What Prisoners manage to do is show you how frustrating this story is from parents who have to go through such a nightmare, but you also get a very well told part of this film from the work perspective of law enforcement. The acting from the whole cast is really good and especially Hugh Jackman, this may be one of his strongest acting performances in his career so far. Prisoners is a very powerful film on a psychological level. What if you go too far and take justice in your own hands? Can you live with that the rest of your life? If you have not seen Prisoners check it out on streaming or rent it on VOD. Movies about missing children is always a difficult subject and we have seen several really good stories be told regarding this subject. This year a horror film known as Weapons from director Zach Cregger ( the director of the 2022 horror film Barbarian with Bill Skarsgård ) became a big box office success and crtitically acclaimed. I especially remember British film critic Mark Kermode giving the film a high rating. Since i did enjoy Barbarian i was curious to see if Weapons would be another quality film from director Zach Cregger. Is this one of the best horror films of this year or do i have a completely different opinion about Weapons?

In the town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, a group of childen unexpectedly ran out of their homes at 2:17 and disappeared. It turns out that almost an entire elementary class disappeared, except for one student named Alex Lilly ( Cary Christopher ). This class that Alex goes to have a teacher named Justine Gandy ( Julia Garner ), and the parents of the children of this class see her as the main suspect. Even thoough Justine knows she had nothing to do with the disappearance of her students. One of the children´s father´s named Archer Graff ( Josh Brolin ) seems to spend all his days to find answers. Where did all the children go and why does no one seem to have any answers?

Weapons is without a doubt one of the more fascinating horror movies of this year. It doesn´t follow a traditional plot but actually tell the story from different individuals, how they experience different time periods since the children went missing from one specific class room. I think it´s important to know that this film does not only focus on the main story, there is a deep meaning to all the different chapters that we are presented with and why they are divided. We also ask ourselves questions such as :- Why did only most of the children in one class suddenly disappear? The mystery surrounding the children that are missing is told in a very mysterious but effective way. I especially enjoy the chapter with the character Justine ( played by actress Julia Garner, who you should watch in the horror film Wolf Man ), the teacher of the class of missing children. How do you handle your private life when children´s parents constantly hate you? How do you function as a human being when no one seems to believe that you have done nothing wrong? I can´t even imagine how extremely difficult this situation must be and i think actress Julia Garner capture these emotions through her performance. I also enjoy legendary actor James Brolin´s character Archer, being one of the parents of the lost children who is desperately searching for answers. The most unique acting performance in this film comes from actress Amy Madigan ( who you should see in the satirical horror action film The Hunt ) as the bizarre character Gladys. Let´s just say she is the last guest you would want during the holidays. I have to mention the beautiful cinematography by Larkin Seiple ( who also did the cinematography on the 2018 sci fi film Kin )  Weapons try to bring a lot of different subjects to the surface, especially how we as humans beings deal with trauma and difficult situations in life, how human behavior can change in a crisis. Director Zach Gregger manage to tell this story very effective with some simple threads that are all connected. I wouldn´t be susprised if Weapons wins some awards next year, this is truly one of the better horror films of 2025.

Rating: DDDD