“Weapons” is a creepy horror thriller film which works best if you do not know a lot about the story and characters before watching it. After drawing your attention with a substantial amount of creepiness and anxiety on the screen, it gradually builds up the story and characters step by step before eventually revealing the chilling darkness hidden at its center, and the result is quite compelling to watch.

As the opening narration establishes an ominous undertone, we see how one plain suburban neighborhood is disturbed by one mysterious incident. In the middle of one night, no less than 17 children were suddenly disappeared without any trace, and, to everyone’s bafflement, it looked like they simply walked out of their houses and then ran away to somewhere at the exact same time. Because they all happen to be the students of the same class in a local elementary school, their class teacher Justine (Julia Garner) comes to receive a lot of attention as the local police embark on the following investigation, and many of the parents of the missing children including Archer (Josh Brolin) blame and suspect her more and more as the investigation is going nowhere,

Consisting of several chapters, the movie slowly develops the story and characters as shifting from one main character to another, and its first chapter focuses on how things have become quite problematic for Justine since the incident. No matter how much she tries to keep going as usual, she only finds herself facing more unjust blame and accusation despite some protection from the school principal, and her resulting frustration drives her to more alcohol and a few unwise choices including the one involved with James (Alden Ehrenreich), a local police officer who is also her ex-boyfriend. 

While the situation becomes messier for her later, Justine comes to pay more attention to one particular boy in her class, who is incidentally the only one who came to the class when all of the other class students were gone missing at that time. Just because of sensing that this boy seems rather troubled after the incident, Justine sincerely tries to approach to him and his parents even though this can be another unwise choice to make her life worse, and then she comes across something very baffling and unnerving to say the least. 

And the story becomes more interesting around the point where it subsequently shifts onto the viewpoint of Archer, who has become quite fixated on finding whatever really happened to his dear son and the other missing kids. When he happens to notice something odd from a surveillance video clip showing a glimpse of whatever occurred at the time of his son’s disappearance, a certain unlikely theory begins to form in his mind, and he is ready to go for that as his mind struggles more with grief and anxiety.

Patiently fleshing out these two main characters and several other main characters in the story including Paul along its emerging narrative, director/writer/co-producer Zach Cregger, who also composed the score along with Ryan and Hays Holladay, provides a number of striking moments to shock or baffle you. Cinematographer Larkin Seipie steadily fills the screen with a creeping sense of dread and uncertainty, and the deftly efficient editing by Joe Murphy keeps us constantly engaged although the plot often changes its course as hopping from one main character to another.

Around the point when the movie fully presents what has been insidiously lurking inside the story, the mood becomes more intense than before, and the movie also makes us care more about what may happen to several main characters in the end. Once everything is set and ready for its eventual climactic part, the movie goes all the way for a full-throttle horror mode, and it also provides some truly nasty fun during a number of key moments including the one featuring a certain kitchenware.

Cregger draws solid performances from his main cast members. They effectively fill their respective spots in the film, and some of them are quite believable as human characters trying to cope with an inexplicable happening in one way or another. Julia Garner, a wonderful actress who was simply unforgettable in “The Assistant” (2019), ably embodies her character’s accumulating anxiety and frustration along the story, and her edgy acting makes a good contrast with the stoic presence of Josh Brolin, who comes to hold the ground steadily along with Garner later in the story. In case of several other main cast members in the film, Alden Ehrenreich, who has been more prominent since his scene-stealing supporting turn in the Coen Brothers’ “Hail Caesar!” (2016), Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan are also well-cast in their respective supporting parts, and the special mention goes to young performer Cary Christopher, who did a splendid job of conveying to us whatever his character is not so willing to reveal.   

  On the whole, “Weapons” is a top-notch work which deserves to be admired for its superlative mood and stellar performances, and it surely shows that Cregger, who previously drew our attention with “Barbarian” (2022), is a skillful filmmaker who does know how to engage and then thrill us. In short, this is one of the more impressive genre films of this year, and I assure you that you will not be disappointed at all once you give it a chance.