Weapons Is A Genre Bending Thriller

The movie involves a group of seventeen children who all vanish from their homes at 2:17 in the morning. Door cams capture children fleeing into the early hours and confirms that they were not abducted. Despite this; their teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), falls under suspicion of the town despite being cleared by authorities as many parents believe she is involved as all the missing children are from her class.

Archer Graff (James Brolin), is one such parent and he is very hostile towards Justine and this only drives her further into alcohol use and following the sole remaining student from her class despite being warned to give him space.

The film does not follow a linear path as it frequently jumps from one character to another to tell events from their side of the story. This is where the film had some issues for me as while I loved seeing the deeper character development; there were moments included that never were explained. Justine meets a character and it is implied that they have a past and there is some fallout later from this meeting. Later we see more details from his side of the story but never get the how and why of the situation so much of it is left for the audience to speculate over and even wonder why it was included in the film.

The film for me had far more moments of humor than it did any horror or suspense and I am still unsure if this was by design or unintentional as aside from some moments of gore that seemed tacked on to try to sell the film as horror; there was little in the way of suspense for me as I was more interested in the characters and the mystery.

In the end the movie tried to walk the line between genres but seemed unable to decide what it truly wanted to be. It is entertaining and different than most films of this type but seemed to be in search of an identity and filled with unanswered questions about characters, motivations, and such. All of which combines to make “Weapons” a unique film experience that will be different things to different viewers, but will entertain.