Weapons

Type: Movie

Score: 6.5/10

Date modified: Dec 27, 2025

I saw a Kill Count of this come out and I was just going to let myself get spoiled but the premise sounded interesting and my lovely boy James convinced me to give this a shot. The cover (included in the media section) being sick as hell helped too.

While the soundtrack of this film was nothing special in my opinion (though when it certainly had some ominous ambiance which fit well), the inclusion of Beware of Darkness for the beginning of the film as well as Under the Porch for the credits were both great picks for additional songs and might finally get me to listen to All Things Must Pass. As for the rest of the stuff going on in this film, it was quite the bizarre watch but I don't think the bizarre-ness made it bad per se.

The film is cut together in a really weird way with a bunch of different characters POVs, kind of like an anthology but it's just the same few days playing out again and again. I unfortunately think this choice ended up being to the film's detriment but it could've been worse, I appreciate that the later characters days are cut down if we've seen the same scene twice and it's a little interesting seeing how the situation changes depending on who we're seeing the perspective of. Despite these choice however, it was still pretty annoying especially when generally the switch between views happens just when something interesting is happening but I digress. Now it's time to talk about the characters, if anything the characters in this film are bold, they make sure I won't forget them for better or for worse. I kind of hated Justine at first, I had thought she was pretty unforgivable when she successfully convinced a recovering alcoholic to get drunk with her but she grew on me slightly especially as I found out Paul also sucks (though honestly hitting that James kid for having a random needle in his pocket was valid as shit, I'm just mad about him cheating on his wife). It felt like an insanely stupid choice for her to follow the one kid that didn't go missing considering her situation, like everyone thinks you were involved so this is just about the worst look you could have. I liked Archer perhaps a little more than I should've, he doesn't exactly seem like a good guy, he's a real dick to Justine despite having no actual evidence she was the reason the kids went missing and he even ended up being wrong, but it's very easy to sympathise with him a lot more than most of the other characters at least. He even has a bit of a redemption arc because even though he's an asshole to Justine he still protects her despite still being convinced (I think) she's the reason his son is missing. Him and Justine's relationship is pretty cool too especially because it means the movie finally picks up its pace a little. The scene where he tells his dream son he loves him only for the kid to turn into the scary clown lady Gladys is sweet and also got me good (even if later on we learn his son is the worst to my lovely boy Alex). Next up is the classic crackhead character James. I find him really funny and the scene of him getting chased out of Alex's house is probably my favourite in the film, shits proper spooky and tense because honestly I thought he was more likely than not going to be killed off there when I first saw it. Following James' section is Marcus' who manages to be probably my favourite character in this entire movie despite having about the least time on screen out of any of the other people we saw the perspective of (I didn't count it just felt like it). I feel like as far as people in this movie go he's probably the one that's done the least wrong, I mean sometimes he's a little mean to Justine but I think he's just trying to help her and himself, and yet we have to watch as he's forced to brutally kill his own husband before he himself gets offed. Shit's fucked up. Alex is the final character we get the POV of (if I'm remembering correctly) and I quite liked his character but I was more impressed by his actor. He's played by Cary Christopher who is apparently ten years old and yet he's still better than many adult actors. You also really do feel horrified watching Gladys force this kid to do what she wants and watching him needing to look after his parents. For sure wouldn't have hit the same if they didn't have an actor this young and he did a great job.

The actual story of this film is alright, the villain just being some mind-controlling witch lady was a bit of a let down though. I don't know, I just kind of expected something more otherworldly doing something cooler than just sapping the youth from the kids or whatever. The payoff to the mystery was satisfying though so it wasn't all bad even if it took a really long time to get around to it, however the actual conclusion to the film wasn't super satisfying to me. This film is also apparently a dark comedy but most of that didn't land at all for me so I'm just not gonna worry about it...

I'm a teensy bit nervous to talk about how film is shot as the only thing I know about the making of films was taught in year 11 English but I'm gonna give it my best shot anyhow because the choices the director takes for filming scenes is often really unique and cool (or maybe it's really common and I don't watch enough horror movies who's to say). I especially like how they often seem to mount the camera on things like the front of Paul's car and the door at Alex's house, makes the scenes feel a lot more intense without needing the camera to get shaky to the point that I don't even know what's happening like some controlled chaos type shit. The way zooms are used to build tension are also really cool and it's not often I see movies directed by people with enough balls to make zooms in quite this slow, I was watching this with three other guys and we all got dead silent about ten seconds into the zoom in onto the house. I will say the fight scenes could've been more interesting, the way the camera falls as James' head falls when Justine shoots him is sick as hell though. So is Gladys' death which might be the most metal thing ever broadcasted and made me wince a little watching it. My only big issue with how this film was shot was that some scenes were just too dark for me to see, partly my monitor's fault I'm sure but I'm sure something could've been done on the filmmaker's side.

Edit: I really undersold the soundtrack, I'm listening to it while making some edits on this because I must've wrote it in a trance last time with how many mistakes there were and it's really god damn good. I'm sure I was a little mean to it because it was never really the focus of the film but wow it's spooky all by itself and Newspaper had a jumpscare inside of the song. I love the scratchy violin noises even if it's not a super unique choice for a horror movie and I love the building dread the soundtrack creates with some of its songs despite an album certainly not being the intended way to consume it.