Weapons (Zach Cregger, August 8, 2025) Movie • Page 21

Reading this last page got me intrigued so I took a look at the horror thread, and that brought me over to the entertainment forum thread, and now I'm no longer intrigued and think I need to step away from the internet for a little bit.

 

Why pen

 

Glad I only watched the first trailer once. All I recalled from it was the basic premise, otherwise I went in blind.

Yea, it’s pretty ingrained in most of the characters.

Alex: a classic kid who gets bullied in school. A weird aunt moves in and he essentially loses his parents and has to keep them alive on his own. Then all that proceeds, traumatic as hell.

Justine: is the prime suspect (in the parents’ eyes) for disappearing 17 kids. She is constantly harassed and targeted, also basically loses her job. As well, being the only other “survivor” of the classroom. Her line about wanting to talk to Alex because they were the only two left said a lot to me about where she was coming from.

Brolin: has his kid run away and the cops seem to have hit a dead end and no progress I being made.

James: we don’t get his backstory, but his phone call with (I assume) his sister showed a broken family dynamic. Perhaps his addiction led to that broken dynamic, but even if that’s the case, that’s pretty traumatic. Not to mention living day to day with just a tent to your name.

Paul: perhaps less so than the others, but we could assume that his alcoholism led to some trauma in his life that shaped who he is.

 

I thought this was great.

It felt like it took place in an allegorical fairy tale world resembling our reality but not attempting to take place in our literal reality. So, I wasn’t bugged by things that would not have worked in our real world.

The ”your aunt who, come to think of it…none of us really remember ever meeting…is coming to live with us” line is a good example of how, in an allegorical story like this, everyone is sort of under a spell to get this specific story told. The characters have moments where they resemble trope-y, broad chess pieces being moved around by the unseen storyteller and demonstrating the moral or theme of the story is more important than obeying the laws of physics or the logic of our own reality.

I want to also say that maybe every witch story I can remember ever hearing takes place in a fairy tale-ish reality where characters and events all feel under a bit of a stupor, being pulled in service of the moral/theme.

I also liked seeing the common trope of the adults being inept and bumbling and the kids being the smart, intuitive ones who have to solve the big problem alone.

 

Feel free to not use spoiler tags.

 

James Gunn did the same thing with Superman’s political commentary. I think directors/writers might be learning not to give the media any fodder to distract from the messages in their movies and that those messages still are there and effective even if they aren’t discussed in interviews.

 

So I don't really know much about this movie - was this actually scary/terrifying in a way that makes you want to close your eyes and look away, or just another horror movie with creepy vibes like The Witch, Midsommar, Hereditary, etc.?

 

I would not call it terrifying. But I also almost never get scared from a movie.

 

Nice. I scare easily but found myself able to tolerate the three movies I just mentioned well enough lol so not sure if it would be too much for me

 

There’s a couple jump scares

 

I would guess you’d be alright.

 

Those do tend to get me the most haha. But idk maybe I can survive it if it isn't constant

 

There was one jump scare near the end when Archer goes in the basement to look for his son and Gladys surprises him that got me good.

 

Despite their name, I don’t think jump scares are scary at all. They can startle me, but I’m not afraid of a quick cut to something/someone or a loud noise.

 

I mean yeah I’m not like terrified or actually scared it just makes you jump/is unexpected

 

I wouldn’t call it terrifying or super scary. But it is unnerving and there are things in corners and scary visuals that pop out.

I woke up a few times at night thinking about specific visuals that were not fun to think about in the middle of the night. The first time I woke up, I had been awake for a few minutes and I checked my watch and it was 2:20 and my adrenaline spiked at the thought of possibly having woken up at exactly 2:17. lol.

 

I have experienced jump scares in the most mundane, non-horror movies. If anything has even a small semblance of being a jumpscare, I will jump right out of my seat

 

You're tripping if you don't think Hereditary is a scary movie haha

 

Yeah, Hereditary is one of the few movies of the last decade that actually scared me. My partner and I were interrupted halfway through with the unexpected arrival of a guest and we both agreed we were happy to get a break from it.

As for jump scares, I’m not generally a fan although I do think there can be good ones. Unfortunately, most of the ones from Weapons didn’t do much for me. The basement one was great although having her then run at the camera felt a little cheap to me. Minor nitpick though.)

 

There are spooky/creepy vibes, there is haunting imagery that sears into your brain, and there is scares that make have a physical reaction.

This movie had the horror movie trifecta. The spooks, the haunts, and the scares.

 

I was in love with the Hereditary trailer but I was not at all into what the movie actually was. The sister decapitation disturbed me and turned me off to the point that I was kinda dulled to the ensuing horrors. It was also Ari Aster’s first movie I saw so I wasn’t mentally prepared to deal with all his Ari Aster BS. Lol. Being more aware of his deal, I did like Modsommar a bit more and I think the juxtaposition of the look and location was helpful.

 

The bleeps, the creeps, and the sweeps, if you will

 

I woke up last night around 3 and couldn’t stop thinking about the dream sequences with the kids wearing the clown makeup.
so yeah it’s spooky, unnerving, couple of jump scares, but none of the actual violence or gore is really pronounced or lingered on too much for the most part

 

The cut to Toni Collette attached to the ceiling on all four’s banging her head against the attic door is probably the scariest shit I’ve seen in a movie in a long time.

 

There’s probably around 5(?) big jump scares with a lot of build-up ahead of time