The small town in which WEAPONS (2025) takes place seems easily recognizable as a typical American place. The streets, buildings and people all seem exactly like what we see every day from our front yards or sitting next to us in traffic. So, when the majority of a classroom of students disappears one night the panicked reactions and insane accusations slung about seem typically American as well. I’m old enough to remember the Satanic Panic of the 1980’s in this country when madder and madder ideas of hidden child abducting cults grabbing vulnerable kids off the streets became a cartoonish obsession. This film’s small town, confronted with missing children, turns on the teacher and the school lashing out ignorantly but in exactly the ways expected. Frustrated fear becomes anger directed at any target available and lives are ruined accordingly. In this case, some of the parent’s darkest fears are reality but the danger stems from a nesting evil that presents in a disarming fashion. The film is a brilliantly done, chilling look at dangers from within and how dark actions are always for the right trigger. I can even see it making a sly commentary on the older generation leeching the youth to extend its own reach.
Weeks after seeing WEAPONS I can still not shake images from it. The Ring doorbell camera footage of children running away from home into the night; the look of anger on Josh Brolin’s face as he wrestles with the mystery; the shadow creeping up behind a sleeping Julia Garner to snip a lock of hair; the flashlight illuminated basement that holds some of the answers. Rarely has a modern horror film drawn me into its story so effectively and haunted my thoughts for so long after I left the theater. Writer/director Zach Cregger knows how to work his way under our skins and presents a vision of America trying to fight off evil it can’t understand. How very modern.
The List
MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM (1944) – 6 (rewatch)
QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC (1981) – 7 (Indonesian supernatural classic)
OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE (2023) – 8 (fun Guy Ritchie espionage)
THE WALKING DEAD (1936) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)
ELI (2019) – 7 (that took an interesting turn)
SWEATER GIRL (1942) – 6 (murder mystery musical)
THE MONKEY (2025) – 9
REDNECK MILLER (1976) – 6 (small regionally-made crime film)
WEAPONS (2025) – 9
HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS (2022) – 8 (hilarious live-action cartoon)
ZENABEL (1969) – 4 (dull period soft-core comedy)
OPUS (2025) – 8
ALLEY CAT (1984) – 4 (sloppy, low-budget revenge film)
GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE (1987) – 7 (Lamberto Bava horror)
LONGLEGS (2024) – 8 (rewatch)
THE MONKEY (2025) – 8 (rewatch)
MORBUS (1983) – 3 (Spanish mess with zombies, nudity galore and Victor Isreal!)
DEATH OF A UNICORN (2025) – 5 (waste of a great cast)
RELAY (2025) – 7 (well done thriller)
ZORRO IN THE COURT OF ENGLAND (1969) – 6 (solid adventure - could have used more action)
THE OGRE (1989) – 6 (Lamberto Bava horror) (rewatch on Blu)
LUZ (2018) – 6 (interesting take on possession and desire)
THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944) – 7 (rewatch on Blu)
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