“Weapons” was recently released on August 8, and has made its name as the second most popular movie as of August 29. I, as well as many other people, have been hooked on wanting to see this movie based on its extraordinary trailer release. However, the movie surprised me in both negative and positive ways. I believe this movie has no clean rating, as it depends on the viewer and how they interpret this movie.
The horror elements in “Weapons” had me physically tensed up in the movie theater due to how incredible it was. Similar to “Smile 2,” this film used the tactic of horrifying stillness within scenes of silence and tension. The frequent use of bold shot design also made the movie stand out, both as an excellent visual element and an amazing horror aspect. The visuals of the security camera footage, or the analog elements of the story, were also clear enough to display an incomprehensible horror element of the unknown.
This movie is not in chronological order and switches between different perspectives every 30 minutes to an hour. This was a confusing approach, especially for the complex relationship dynamics between each character. Not only that, but I could recognize many plot holes regarding the dynamics, too, that vanished just as fast as each new perspective. This did not sit right with me.
This movie takes body horror to a whole new level of scary, as the cosmetic work and the director’s keen eye for detail had me stunned. It wasn’t just gruesome or repulsive, but it was also nightmarish. It truly screams “raw and uncontrollable depravity,” which perfectly aligns with the story’s horror goal. Another notable effect was the imagery used in the movie’s dream sequences. For example, the strange combination of a clock-gun stuck on “2:17” symbolizes the community’s engagement with an entity that turns people into, as the title says, “Weapons.” It also symbolizes the exact time at which most of these disappearances happened and the collective trauma of it. It is an amazingly creative take that further influences the movie’s plot. This did not disappoint me whatsoever. Instead, it was far better than my initial expectations.
Weapons takes an interesting approach when it comes to its genre of horror. Some parts of the movie take a darkish comedic stance, while others follow a socially complex fantasy mystery. It almost felt like a fever dream because of how dynamic it was, almost like a Steven King story. This had both negative and positive factors since the opposing genres clash in an odd way. It gives the horror elements incredibly complex and interesting, while it doesn’t do the actual story justice.
Although the rest of these elements are bold and interesting, the story on its own was unsatisfactory. The story follows your typical “evil entity harms children and others who get in the way” trope instead of anything uniquely supernatural. This film doesn’t exactly defy expectations as the trailer suggested – it just gave you an overused story in a new font. In other words, the concept had more potential than the actual choice they decided for the story to go with.
These elements mix together into a strange piece of media, which has good and bad components. It really is up to the viewer if this is a good, bad, or neutral movie, because as a horror movie, it is spectacular, but as a movie itself, it is not the greatest.
