Weapons is a Surreal Horror Mystery of Terror

Weapons is by far one of my favorite horror films of this year. The storytelling in this film was incredible, and was beyond original when it came to the horror concept. Weapons is a film set in modern times, mixed with an old school villain that will leave you terrified. 

We follow the story of multiple characters, all linked together somehow, that lead to the big mystery of what nightmares are taking place in their small town. 

We follow each of their point of views, as the audience is left in anticipation of who is behind this strange mystery. 

The film begins with our main character, a woman named Justine who is instantly blamed for the disappearances of 17 children.

Justine is a teacher in the small town, and only her classroom is targeted when it came to the sudden vanishing of 17 kids. They all vanished in the middle of the night, at exactly 2:17 in the morning. Only one kid remained, a kid named Alex, who was the spared by this horrible event. Justine is questioned by police, and even though no evidence is found against her, the town thinks otherwise. 

She is strongly accused by a man named Archer, who was one of the parents that had his kid go missing. who is one of the reasons why the town turns against her. He even goes as far to spray paint 'Witch' on the side of her car, that greatly pisses off Justine. These two characters are plagued by creepy nightmares, consisting of a scary woman with a big smile, that leaves the two of them completely terrified. 

Both characters become infatuated with the mystery, determined to figure out what happened to the children. Justine tries to ask Alex more questions, but he tells her to leave him alone. Justine discovers that Alex's home is completely covered by newspaper in the windows, and she finds his parents sitting on the couch, staring straight ahead. Archer tries to figure out where the kids ran off too, and notices how strange the posture of the children were when they all ran away from home. 

Archer eventually confronts Justine later on, and he asks her once again about what happened, and while Justine is frustrated with Archer and trying to explain herself, she sees a man she knows running toward her, covered in blood. 

We then cut to two other characters named Paul and James, who become connected to the mystery.

Paul is the ex - boyfriend of Justine, who ends up spending the night with her after having too much to drink. Paul's current girlfriend learns of his betrayal, and she goes after Justine in a fit of rage. Paul is obviously not having a good day, and during his shift, he runs into a drug addict named James. He catches the kid trying to break into a building, and he goes after the kid in his vehicle. 

He catches James, and he puts handcuffs on him, getting ready to arrest him and bring him into the police station. While Paul is making sure James doesn't have anything sharp on him, he accidentally stabs himself with a needle that was in James' pocket. 

In a sudden fit of rage, he punches the kid in the face, but to Paul's horror, he forgot to turn off the body cam footage. He begs James to not tell anyone about what happened, and James complies, afraid and too high to realize what happened to him. 

James gets away with his attempted robbery, and he goes home back to his tent in the woods. He returns back to the town to continue his addiction, by robbing people to sell the stuff in a pawn shop to have money to buy drugs. James breaks into Alex's home, and he robs the place. He freaks out when he finds Alex's parents sitting on the couch, both completely still. 

James ignores the strangeness of the adults, and continues his robbing of the place. He breaks into the basement and accidentally finds the missing kids. James runs away from the home, and when he arrives to the pawn shop to sell what he stole, he sees a $50,000 award for the missing kids. 

James decides to somehow get that money, and he goes to the police station to report his findings. He finds an angered Paul instead, and he goes after James again. He escapes into the woods, and finds the same creepy woman that Justine and Archer had seen in their nightmares, waving at him. 

James gets pretty damned scared, and runs back to his tent to hide, and picks up his needles as a way to defend himself.

When the figure arrives to his tent, James stabs at the person's face, only to realize he accidentally stabbed Paul. The officer gets really pissed off this time around, and arrests James. The kid tells Paul he knows where the kids are, and Paul agrees to follow James' directions to the house. 

They arrive back at Alex's house, and Paul leaves James handcuffed in the backseat. We get a huge time skip of James still stuck in the car, pissed off that he stayed inside all the way to nighttime. Paul emerges from the home, and drags a screaming James into the house, confirming that something far darker took place inside. 

The next character we follow is a man named Marcus, who is unfortunately targeted by the evil taking place.

Marcus is the school principal of the school, who is trying to keep Justine at bay from confronting Alex, and trying to keep the peace with the parents that lost their children. Marcus meets a woman named Gladys, the aunt of Alex. She strangely resembles the same woman that Justine, James, and Archer had seen, confirming that something is deeply wrong with her. 

Marcus tells Gladys he would love to go meet with Alex's parents, to make sure that everything is alright with Alex. Gladys assures Marcus that everything is alright, but she decides to comply with his demands. Gladys unexpectedly shows up to the home of Marcus and his husband, Terry. 

She takes out a stick, and cuts off a piece of Terry's hair to wrap around the stick. Marcus notices a personal item that belonged to him also wrapped around the stick, and while the couple is freaking out over this, Gladys snaps the stick in two. 

Marcus is put under a spell from out of nowhere, attacks Terry, bashing his head against Terry's face until he dies. Gladys then wraps a piece of Justine's hair around another stick, that she had obtained in the beginning of the film. She snaps the stick, and Marcus goes after Justine, now on a mission to kill her. 

Justine barely escapes from Marcus trying to kill her, with the help of Archur, and the accidental hit and run of a woman driving on down the road, who runs over Marcus. 

After this terrifying encounter, Justine and Archer work together to figure out what is going on in the town.

The duo team up, and Archer explains the weird way that Marcus was running, similar to the way the kids ran when they left their homes. When Archer shows Justine a map he had been working on to figure out where the kids went, Justine tells Archer that the spot he was trying to figure out was the location of Alex's home. 

We cut to the point of view of Alex, finally getting the full story as to what kind of horror is taking place. Alex was a normal happy kid, who was deeply loved by his parents, and even though he was getting bullied by the kid of Archer, Alex was always happy to go back home to the people who loved him. His world comes crashing down when Gladys comes to his home, who claims to be his aunt. 

When Alex one day comes home, he finds his parents now sitting still at the dinner table, now under the spell of Gladys. She tells Alex he will do as she says, or his parents will die. Alex complies with her demands, being forced to take an item that belonged to each of the kids in his classroom. She does a spell to lure the children to her home, and Alex learns that she is feeding off of their life forces to continue living. 

Alex feeds each of the kids and his parents the same meal 24/7, trying his best to keep everyone alive. Gladys' plans are foiled when Paul and James arrive, and she tells Alex they must leave the home in order to avoid getting caught. Alex sees Justine and Archer heading to his home, both determined to solve the mystery of what is happening at Alex's home. 

Justine, Archer, and Alex are caught in a battle for survival as Gladys uses her spells to attack the trio.

Justine and Archer are immediately attacked by a possessed James and Paul, and Justine is forced to kill both men to save Archer. Then Archer is put under a spell by Gladys, and goes after Justine. Alex is also trying his best to survive the attack by his possessed parents, and he gets an idea of how to defeat Gladys. 

He takes a piece of hair from her wig, and he wraps it around a stick. While his parents are trying to reach him in his home, he snaps the stick in two. 

We get one of the best sequences I've seen in a horror movie. 

The 17 kids all run out of the basement, going after Gladys. She panics, and runs outside, and the kids continue their pursuit. They crash through homes to go after her, all of the kids screaming in a fit of rage. Multiple people watch this spectacle in shock and utter confusion, and Gladys is eventually caught by the children. 

She screams as the children literally rip her into pieces, ending her evil. 

Archer snaps out of his spell, and he drops Justine, leaving her in Alex's home. Justine finds Alex hugging his parents, now both vegetables. Archer finds his son among the missing kids, standing around the dead body of Gladys. He embraces his son and takes him away from the carnage. 

The movie ends with a narration, that Alex's parents never snapped out of the spell Gladys put them under, and some of the missing kids were able to speak again. 

Even though we didn't really get a happy ending, we at least got to see Gladys pay a hefty price for all the harm she caused the community. She was an evil piece of shit, and 100% deserved her brutal death. 

Weapons was a horror masterpiece, and one of the best horror stories I have seen this year.

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn