Speaker 1: Welcome back to Real Reviews, where we break down the
Speaker 1: latest in film, one frame at a time. Today's feature
Speaker 1: is an unsettling, atmospheric mystery horror entry from writer director
Speaker 1: Zat Craiger, who made waves a few years ago with
Speaker 1: his breakout genre hit Barbarian. Now with Weapons, he ups
Speaker 1: the ante, taking us deeper into psychological horror and emotional
Speaker 1: trauma while crafting a genuinely compelling story that leads more
Speaker 1: questions than answers in all the right ways. Let me
Speaker 1: set the scene. One night in a quiet suburban neighborhood,
Speaker 1: Seventeen children, all but one from the same classroom, suddenly
Speaker 1: rise from their beds, walk out of their homes, and
Speaker 1: vanish into the night, no warning, no sound. They all
Speaker 1: move with eerie synchronicity, their arms extended like airplane wings,
Speaker 1: spreading towards something or away from something, and just like that,
Speaker 1: they're gone. The next morning, the town is in shock,
Speaker 1: parents are frantic, the media is circling, and at the
Speaker 1: center of the mystery is Justine Gandhy, played with raw
Speaker 1: vulnerability by Julia Gardner. She's the children's teacher and the
Speaker 1: only adult closely tied to all of them, who didn't
Speaker 1: lose a child. Immediately the suspicion falls on her. She
Speaker 1: becomes the emotional lightning ride for a community in grief,
Speaker 1: and she begins to unraveled under the weight of guilt, confusion,
Speaker 1: and paranoia. But Justine's not the only one searching for answers.
Speaker 1: Archer Graft played by Josh Brolin, is a grieving father
Speaker 1: whose son is among the missing. He's not just mourning,
Speaker 1: he's on a mission, and as the film progresses, his
Speaker 1: obsession with uncovering the truth brings him face to face
Speaker 1: with Justine in ways that neither of them could have predicted.
Speaker 1: Now here's where weapons really impresses. Craiger just doesn't really
Speaker 1: rely on gore or cheap thrills. Instead, he crafts an
Speaker 1: elegant horror mystery that plays like a slow motion panic attack.
Speaker 1: Think The Leftovers meets Magnolia with a Rashaman style storytelling
Speaker 1: instructure that shift's perspective, allowing each character to peel back
Speaker 1: another layer of the truth, or at least what they
Speaker 1: believe is the truth. It's a narrative ructure that demands
Speaker 1: your attention and rewards it. We get haunting performances from
Speaker 1: the ensemble cast that includes Alden Einrich, Benedigu Wong, Amy Madigan,
Speaker 1: and June Diane Raphel, each of them playing characters that
Speaker 1: walk the line between vulnerability and suspicion. But as Carrie Christopher,
Speaker 1: the young actor playing the lone child left behind, who
Speaker 1: delivers one of the film's most surprising performances for a
Speaker 1: child actor. With only a handful of credits, he showed
Speaker 1: us much of the emotional weight in the second and
Speaker 1: third act, and he does so with haunting stillness and
Speaker 1: heartbreaking clarity. Weapons is also noteworthy for the absence of
Speaker 1: the usual horror movie cliches. Characters don't make stupid decisions
Speaker 1: for the sake of plot advancement. They act out of grief, guilt,
Speaker 1: and fear, all of which organic, and when the film
Speaker 1: leans into more surreal and supernatural moments, it does so
Speaker 1: without breaking the emotional reality it's built. This is a
Speaker 1: film about more than just missing children. It's about how
Speaker 1: grief distorts reality, how guilt fractures identity, and how sometimes
Speaker 1: the scariest moments are the thoughts we try to outrun.
Speaker 1: And here's a bit of backstory. Weapons reportedly ignited a
Speaker 1: bidding war across Hollywood before it was even produced, and
Speaker 1: it's easy to see why. Craiger, flushed from the success
Speaker 1: of Barbarians, wrote a script that was described as both
Speaker 1: a horror epic and a personal film. New Line Cinema
Speaker 1: shelled out a reported thirty eight million for it, with
Speaker 1: Craiger earning final cut, privileges a rare deal in today's
Speaker 1: studio system. You can feel the creative freedom in the
Speaker 1: film's It's bold, thoughtful, and most importantly, it's not afraid
Speaker 1: to be ambiguous, to let horror them from what we
Speaker 1: don't know, what we can't understand. So if you're looking
Speaker 1: for something that lingers after the credits roll, a horror
Speaker 1: film that doesn't just try to scare you, but wants
Speaker 1: you to sit with the discomfort, Weapons should be on
Speaker 1: your radar. It's a chilling, intelligent, and emotionally grounded mystery
Speaker 1: that confirms that Kraiger is one of the most interesting
Speaker 1: horror filmmakers working today. I gave this film an A minus.
Speaker 1: Weapons opens in theaters this week. Don't sleep on this one.
Speaker 1: I'm Tim Gordon and until next week peace. I'll see
Speaker 1: you guys next week. Up