4/5 stars
One of many extra highly effective horror movies to reach this 12 months, Weapons begins with a baby’s voice-over explaining that 17 children have gone lacking from the small US city of Maybrook.
Creepier nonetheless, all of them left their houses at precisely the identical time – 2.17am – seemingly of their very own volition. Oh, they usually all attended the identical class on the native junior faculty. Solely instructor Justine (Julia Garner) and one pupil, Alex (Cary Christopher), are nonetheless accounted for.
Among the many townspeople outraged that the police have made no progress is development boss Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), whose son Matthew is among the many disappeared.
In the meantime, the boozy Justine is being hounded from all sides – intimidating phone calls, graffiti on her automobile that reads “witch” – as these in the neighborhood refuse to consider she has nothing to do with this eerie thriller.
Written and directed by Zach Cregger, who beforehand made the sly 2022 horror Barbarian, Weapons is seemingly impressed by Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, with its patchwork quilt of characters criss-crossing the San Fernando Valley.
