Barbarian had you terrified? You hadn’t seen anything yet. The filmmaker Zach Cregger repeats today with Weaponsan even darker, twisted and diabolical work that will tremble the most seasoned film buffs.
Zach Cregger had stuck into the field of the terror in 2022 with Barbariana work that could hardly be able to bear its name as brutal and depraved. But obviously, this was only a appetizer, a taste of the resistance dish that the director and screenwriter serves us today.
Car Weapons (or Time of disappearancein Quebec) is nothing less than a masterpiece of terror, intended to become more embedded in our memories as in the history of genre cinema.
Mysterious disappearance
Already, on paper, his premise had something to intrigue. Weapons transports us to a small American town where 17 children – all attending the same class of the local primary school – disappear simultaneously in the middle of the night. Images captured by surveillance cameras show these kids leaving their respective homes to the race and then disappear without leaving the slightest trace.
But what prompted these children to disappear like this? It is the mystery – dense and opaque at will – that Zach Cregger dissipates little by little, relying on the different points of view of various stakeholders. We will therefore follow the teacher towards which all the fingers are pointed out, a distraught father, a police officer gravitating on the outskirts of the investigation and other characters to try to reconstruct the events.
17 children disappear simultaneously in the film “Weapons”.
Photo provided by Warner Bros Pictures
In doing so, the filmmaker once again manages to thwart the expectations of moviegoers, leading them to unsuspected (and very, very dark) areas according to the detours of his intrigue. And we will gladly follow him, captive of his twisted and disturbing imagination, of course, but above all hypnotized by his impeccable mastery of the codes of the terror he uses – or even deconstructs – as he pleases.
Cries of dread
The only light downside that could be brought to its most recent offering is probably its duration by almost two hours ten minutes which slightly reduces its striking and impact force, with a few lengths here and there. Nevertheless, his work has supported a few cries of dread to the proven moviegoers gathered for the preview held Wednesday evening in Montreal.
Julia Garner in a scene from the film Weapons.
Photo provided by Warner Bros Pictures
And if Weapons Count on the presence of Julia Garner and Josh Brolin in headliners, we must emphasize the remarkable presence of actress Amy Madigan. Less known than its peers – despite its impressive roadmap made up of secondary roles in classics such as Streets of Fire et Field of Dreams -, she delivers here a performance so memorable that she is very likely to become a new icon of the terror.
As for Zach Cregger, it is the title of new master of horror that we must award him today. Nothing less.
Weapons ★★★★☆
A film by Zach Cregger. With Julia Garner, Josh Brolin and Amy Madigan. On display.
