THERE’S plenty of hype surrounding Zach Cregger’s latest film Weapons, but does it live up to it?
Heralded the new king of horror after the release of his debut feature, Barbarian, a darkly humorous tale about a double-booked Airbnb, writer-director Cregger is certainly the man of the moment in Hollywood.
His latest, Weapons, a spooky Stephen King/Roald Dahl-esque thriller, is being talked up by gushy film critics as the horror movie of the year.
It’s not, but if you are looking for some good old 1980s nostalgia á la Salem’s Lot and Children of the Corn, you will find plenty to tickle your fancy here.
Cregger’s unsettling second film has plenty going for it. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable Hansel and Gretel variety mystery in the cinematic stylings of M Night Shyamalan.
What Weapons lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in the dark arts of suspense, unpredictability, and intrigue. But more than breaking new ground, Cregger’s chilling blockbuster instead tips its hat to what’s gone before. Slick and diverting, it’s more a flashback of modern horror history’s finest moments.
This is a popcorn horror movie that promises a good time while playing its hand way too safe. This much fawned over feature tells the macabre story of 17 children, from a classroom of 18, all mysteriously vanishing on the same night at exactly the same time. Everyone from the child left behind to their teacher comes under scrutiny as their disappearance leaves the local community scratching its collective head.
Cregger has upped his game from his well-received debut feature, and this hardened cynic enjoyed his second offering thoroughly. I have no doubt though that I would have gotten more from the experience if such a hullabaloo hadn’t already been made of it. My expectations were way too high.
Starring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, Weapons is a film that the critics have gone ballistic over. Horror movie of the year, it isn’t, but it has a lot of caliber.
(4/5)
