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If you\u2019ve been to the cinema in the past few months, specifically to watch a\u00a0horror film, you might have seen an intriguing teaser for Zach Cregger\u2019s sophomore film, Weapons, <\/i>in which a\u00a0child\u2019s voice recalls the night that 17<\/span> children \u2013 all from the same third grade class \u2013 disappeared in the small town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania. At 2<\/span>.17<\/span>am, they silently got out of bed, left their homes, ran off into the night, \u200b\u201c<\/span>and they never came back\u201d leaving only ominous security footage and devastated parents in their wake. Warner Bros capitalised on this creepy premise (and Cregger\u2019s breakout success with Barbarian<\/i><\/a>) through a\u00a0mysterious marketing campaign \u2013 de rigueur <\/span><\/i>for any self-respecting modern horror \u2013 setting <\/span>Weapons <\/span><\/i>up to be the scare of the summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With a\u00a0class of kids missing, suspicion falls to their teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), an unassuming blonde with big glasses who is just as disturbed by the disappearance as the rest of the town. Leading the witch hunt against her is Archer (Josh Brolin), the father of one of the missing children, who is dead certain Matthew\u2019s teacher knows more than she\u2019s letting on despite any evidence to support this (we have no reason to distrust Gandy beyond her functioning alcoholism). There is one lead, in the form of the only pupil from the class who didn\u2019t disappear, but Alex (Cary Christopher) isn\u2019t talking, and the small-town cops are in way over their heads. Well-meaning Principal Marcus (Benedict Wong) appeases the parents by letting Justine go, and with nothing left to lose, the teacher starts looking into the disappearance herself.<\/span><\/p>\n The same spiky sense of humour Cregger displayed in Barbarian <\/i>returns in Weapons, <\/i>even kicked up a\u00a0notch \u2013 there are striking moments of absurdity and physical comedy that undercut some of the more visceral unpleasantness (Cregger has an eye for the unsettling). Garner\u2019s pleasingly undone performance as a\u00a0woman on the brink of losing everything is nicely matched by Brolin\u2019s gruff concerned father despite the thinness of both roles, though it\u2019s Amy Madigan who steals the show when she pops up in the third act, even if her character is woefully undercooked. This lack of finesse speaks to a\u00a0problem that Cregger also exhibited in Barbarian<\/i>: he\u2019s got style, a\u00a0sense of humour and good casting instincts, but often the ideas in his films are more interesting than how he manages to realise them.<\/p>\n For example: there was speculation prior to Weapons<\/i>\u2019 release that the film might be an allegory for America\u2019s ongoing failure to reckon with the epidemic of school shootings that have plagued the country for decades. While there is some <\/i>evidence to support this in the film (an exchange between Justine and Archer, a\u00a0striking but unexplained image Archer sees in his dreams) the imagery is a\u00a0flimsy gesture rather than a\u00a0meaningful statement, muddled in with a\u00a0small-town witch hunt and a\u00a0side plot involving a\u00a0local cop\u2019s run-in with a\u00a0homeless drug addict. The peaks and troughs of the narrative are perhaps a\u00a0side effect of its chapter structure, which shows the story from the perspective of various characters. Some are excellent, such as the one about left-behind pupil Alex, but others feel a\u00a0little like filler material.<\/p>\n The approach has method \u2013 in pre-release interviews, Cregger revealed Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s Magnolia <\/i>was a\u00a0big influence on Weapons<\/i>, in that a\u00a0cast of characters are bound by one common event, and we see the story unfold from each of their perspectives. Such a\u00a0bold statement inevitably sets a\u00a0filmmaker up for failure, and Cregger seems to have forgotten the thing that made Magnolia <\/i>so great was the originality of PTA\u2019s vision. Rather egregiously, the big reveal of Weapons <\/i>is incredibly similar to that of Barbarian,<\/i> and once you notice that striking rehash, it\u2019s impossible to ignore other echos within the film which feel less like stylistic hallmarks and more like lazy fallbacks. His tendency to leave more questions than answers doesn\u2019t help in that area \u2013 while there\u2019s often nothing more disconcerting than the unknown, it becomes an easy way out when your ideas are already spookily similar to ones you peddled last time around.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a\u00a0shame that the film falls back on old ideas, because Weapons\u2019 <\/i>first half is genuinely intriguing and some of the film\u2019s scares are effective in both shock value and bewilderment. It\u2019s clear that Cregger has a\u00a0cinematic spark, and his sick sense of humour is most welcome in these trying times, but two films in, it\u2019s time to find a\u00a0new bogeyman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nGet more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n