No spoiler, here: what's great in the movie is all in the trailer. In the trailer, we hear that children from one teacher's classroom left their homes at 2:17am and that they have not returned in a month. We see children run, arms outstretched, through dark suburban streets. We see one distraught parent (played by James Brolin) trace lines on a map of the neighborhood from each front door to the last location captured by doorbell security cameras, and we can see at a glance that their multiple lines intersect at a single point.
A cool thing about the movie is that multiple storylines also intersect at one point. We go over the same basic period of time from different characters' points of view, all intersecting at the residence of one outlandish character. This approach helps us to be deeply invested in the different characters before the climax. We are especially sympathetic to the teacher, that father, and the young boy left behind.
The extreme violence (some brains, some dismemberment), doesn't feel disturbing, being all part of this puzzle-constructed game. What does disturb is the resonance with real-life school shootings and their aftermath, those makeshift shrines of stuffies and flowers and the raw emotions when parents confront authorities.
Before the movie, we got previews of several upcoming horror movies. It was a dismal warm-up act. None of them generated the curiosity of the puzzle presented in Weapons.
Atlanta exclusive: Being in Atlanta gives me some proximity to film-related activities. So I have this shot of the cake that the cast and crew dug into at the wrap party for Weapons. Viewers of the movie will recognize the cake for its uncanny resemblance to the character Aunt Gladys.
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