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Weapons, the surprise hit new horror movie from writer/director Zach Cregger starring Julia Garner, didn’t end up being what anyone thought it was going to be – and it turns out that’s...
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00:00Weapons, the surprise new hit horror movie from writer-director Zack Kreger,
00:04didn't end up being what anyone thought it was going to be.
00:08And it turns out, that's exactly what everyone loves about it.
00:12The film manages to combine horror and comedy with an exploration of some really deep themes,
00:18while constantly keeping you guessing. So, what is Weapons really about?
00:23I don't want anyone to go see Weapons and think like, oh, a meditation on grief.
00:27And what does that ending actually represent?
00:31Let's unpack Weapons' symbolism and themes to find out.
00:34Weapons follows the story of a small town rocked by an event that is both terrifying and… weird.
00:41At 2.17am one day, over two dozen children hopped out of their beds and ran out into the night.
00:49No one has any idea why, or even an idea of how to figure out why,
00:54and it quickly leads to tempers flaring.
00:57Weapons takes cues from Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon,
01:01which details a crime through four different perspectives,
01:05allowing us to see how the truth can bend and change depending on who we're hearing the story from.
01:12This gets at a deeper reality.
01:14When dealing with incomprehensible events,
01:17there often is no one, single, easily understood truth.
01:35In Weapons, we see pieces of the story play out through six different perspectives,
01:39each simultaneously filling us in on more of the story, and making us rethink our preconceived notions.
01:46We first enter this world through the perspective of third grade teacher Justine.
01:50All of the children who disappeared were in her class, with only one young boy being left behind.
01:56Though Justine has done nothing other than care for her children and attempt to foster their growth,
02:02given the fact that all of the missing children were in her class, and no one has any idea what's
02:07going on, anger quickly begins to be directed her way.
02:11We then shift to Archer's point of view. He's one of the parents of the missing children,
02:15and initially one of the loudest voices pointing the finger at Justine.
02:19We then see bits of the story through the eyes of Paul, a cop with anger issues,
02:23and the past relationship with Justine.
02:26And then I was like, I want a cop with a mustache, because there's something about
02:29Magnolia and John C. Reilly, and I was just like, I want to put that character in this movie,
02:33I don't know why, but I just, that belonged.
02:35James, a drug addict who lives in the woods, and Marcus, the school's principal,
02:40before finally making our way to young Alex's experience,
02:44which we'll dig into more in a moment.
02:46In addition to switching perspectives, the film isn't afraid to jump around genres either,
02:51shifting from thriller to drama to horror to even comedy.
02:55The moments of levity help add variety to the story's track,
02:59and also aren't actually that surprising,
03:01given that Kreger got his start with comedy troupe The Whitest Kids You Know.
03:05I want to see you happier with your mouth open, you guys are on the same page.
03:14Taking time to lift us up and let us get a breath,
03:18helps make the scares hit that much harder when they do come.
03:22Though the basic premise sounds pretty out there,
03:25a group of children mysteriously Naruto running off into the night,
03:28the film is actually very grounded in some real-life horrors we have to fight against.
03:34Weapons is surprisingly layered textually, as its winding narrative structure allows it to cover a
03:39lot of ground. There are small things, like fake-outs, that exist not to trick us,
03:45but to serve to remind us that even in all of this supernatural horror,
03:50there are also simultaneously regular real-world problems going on too.
03:55Take, for example, when we notice someone that seems to be hunting a completely unaware
04:00Justine through the liquor store. In the end, it's not someone come to kill her, not this time at
04:05least, but instead Paul's wife who has come to yell at her for not only sleeping with Paul,
04:11but also helping push him back off the wagon. Justine might not be guilty of harming the children,
04:16but she, like all of us, is still an imperfect person who sometimes hurts others with her choices.
04:23The number 217 looms large, sometimes literally, within the film. It's the exact time that all of
04:29the children arose from their beds and ran out of their homes, but it also seems to represent something
04:34more. After being coy about it in interviews, Kreger did finally confess to Far Out magazine
04:40that he chose the number because of the room number in Stephen King's The Shining, which Kubrick
04:45changed to 237 for the film. That room is the room in the Overlook Hotel that's synonymous with
04:52mysterious horror, so it's an apt choice. The core idea of the film is the question of who or what is
04:59really a danger to children. With the imagery of the empty classroom, initially many thought
05:04that this would be a meditation on school attacks, but that isn't actually where the film goes. We do
05:10see some nods to this idea, though, in Archer's Nightmare. As he's attempting to chase down his son
05:16and find out what happened to him, he sees a giant gun floating above his home. But the mystery of what
05:22actually happened remains, and continues to wear on his psyche. We see this question play out with
05:28the concept of witches within the film as well. After a scary late night encounter, Justine awakes
05:34to find a witch painted across her car in red. We later come to find that this was Archer's doing.
05:40But while she might be an easy and obvious target, Justine isn't the danger or the witch. That would be
05:47Aunt Gladys, the actual witch who has come to town. In the rush to point the finger at Justine just to
05:54feel like they have some answer, we get an unpacking of the way that some adults will focus in on things
05:59that aren't the actual problem to help them either avoid the real problem or deal with the fact that
06:06they don't yet understand what the real problem actually is. The idea of parasites is repeatedly touched
06:13upon. It's the subject that Justine's class is covering in a flashback, and also of the
06:18documentary we see Marcus and his husband watching. The parasite in weapons turns out to be Alex's
06:24Aunt Gladys, who arrives under the guise of needing care, only to begin feeding on the energy of Alex's
06:31parents. This brings us to the real parasite at the heart of the film. Addiction. Everyone in this
06:38film is touched by addiction in some way. Justine and Paul's battle with alcoholism.
06:43Archer's obsession with finding an answer. James's dependence on drugs.
06:48The witch's magic is a dark use of nature, functioning as a metaphor for substances like
06:54alcohol. She uses things that are a part of us and our world, in her case hair, blood, sticks,
07:00and water, to wreak havoc and destruction. The way Gladys moves into the Lily household and begins
07:06sapping the parents of their entire beings, and turning them into shells of themselves that are
07:12dangerous not only to themselves, but also Alex, is a metaphor for the ravages of addiction.
07:17The final chapter of this movie is very autobiographical. It's examining the dynamic of
07:23children with parents who are alcoholics, which is my childhood. We see how being under this spell
07:29inverts the dynamic between Alex and his parents, leading to him having to care for them all by himself,
07:35feeding them chicken noodle soup and hoping it's enough to keep them going.
07:39We see the immense toll that being parentified so young takes on him,
07:43as well as the stress of not being able to tell anyone about what's happening in his family.
07:49And we see how even something this affecting can go unnoticed within a larger community.
07:55There's even a nod to this idea in the opening narration of the film, where a young voice tells us
08:00that, while the events of this story weren't documented anywhere, anyone who experienced them
08:05can confirm that they did happen.
08:07This is a true story that happened in my town.
08:11An estimated 1 in 10 children live in households with at least one parent who has a substance abuse
08:17disorder. They, like Alex, often feel compelled to hide what they're experiencing for fear of
08:23repercussions. But that doesn't mean that what they're experiencing isn't real and painful.
08:29We also see how being an addict can lead to one not being believed.
08:34James is the first person to find out where the children are.
08:38But because his main goal seems to be getting the reward money to buy more drugs,
08:42he isn't initially believed.
08:45All of these symbols and themes come together for an ending that is simultaneously terrifying
08:50and cathartic. And kind of funny.
08:52But much of the final act of the film is quite stressful, and even depressing as we watch poor
08:57little Alex become crushed under this horror he's been forced to live through. Everyone that does
09:02try to help seems to get trapped in Gladys' web. But then, something changes in Alex. Gladys has drawn a
09:10literal line, insult, that she tells Alex he cannot cross under any circumstances. And if he does,
09:17his parents will attack him. He finally reaches a breaking point where he wants to do something,
09:22anything if it might mean he can free his parents from this prison. So he crosses the line. And
09:29terrifyingly, they do immediately attack. In the addiction metaphor, this aligns with how daunting
09:35it can be to confront the person suffering. And how scary their pushback can be. Alex is able to
09:42formulate a plan using the bits of knowledge he's pieced together. And just as all seems lost,
09:47he breaks Gladys' spell. This frees not only his parents and Archer, but also the other children.
09:54They all immediately make a beeline for Gladys, chasing her across the neighborhood in a scene
09:59that feels both cathartic and uplifting after all of the terror we've just been subjected to.
10:04They finally catch her and literally rip her to shreds. In the end, things aren't magically fixed.
10:11Everyone still has to deal with the trauma they've suffered, even after they've been freed from the
10:16spell. But there is hope. The young narrator from the beginning returns to let us know that now,
10:22a year later, some of the children have begun to find their voices again. And while Alex's parents
10:28aren't back to normal, he and they are safe. In the end, the weapons aren't literal weapons or the
10:35children being turned into weapons, but the metaphorical weapons with which we harm ourselves
10:41and each other. The film isn't perfect, but overall it's a great watch that does well being
10:46simultaneously entertaining and introspective. If you've already seen Weapons, let us know what
10:52you thought about it in the comments. That's the take! Click here to watch the video we think you'll
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