From writer/Director Zack Cregger, the man responsible for the highly praised horror film Barbarian, comes his latest horror film Weapons.

Now, while Barbarian was indeed highly praised within the horror and critical community, it was a movie that for me fell apart in the final act and for which I did not care. As such, when the marketing for Weapons touted Cregger’s writing and direction, it provoked very little for me to make the excursion to see this in the theater. However, as word of mouth grew and the film proved to have ‘legs’ at the box office, my curiosity became activated and Friday evening I went to see it.

Warner Bros Studios

Weapons is the mystery of Justine Grady’s (Julia Garner) 3rd grade class that, with the exception of a single student, Alex (Cary Christopher), rose from their beds in the middle of the night, running off into the dark vanishing without a trace. When the police investigation fails to produce answers, much of the town, including Archer Graf (Josh Brolin), father of one of the missing children, turn on Justine as it was her class and only her class that suffered the strange and traumatic event.

Justine is not a classically ‘likable’ protagonist, with a somewhat dodgy past and an issue with alcohol, she makes an easy target for the terrified and enraged community and a particular target of Archer, certain that Justine knows more than she is saying.

Weapons is presented in a chapter format, with the different sections of the film told with a focus on and from the point of view of various characters in the community, not all of whom were directly affected by the mass disappearance. Some subplots remain distinct and unconnected to the story’s central mystery, adding color and understanding of the characters. The chapters also present events in not wholly chronological order, so something strange, frightening, and mysterious becomes understandable when viewed from another character’s experiences.

Unlike Barbarian, I found Weapons a thoroughly engaging piece of cinema. The mystery’s resolution suffered none of the suspension of disbelief shattering action that plagued Cregger’s previous movie. The only weakness of the film is in the middle section where a couple of ‘jump scares’ seem to exist with the only purpose being to remind you that you are indeed watching a horror film and not trusting that the situation and characters are enough to keep your interest high.

Weapons works as a study of characters under stress and trauma and as a horror mystery that resolves nicely and neatly without loose ends of action too unbelievable to sustain. If horror films are your jam, it is well worth a trip to the theater.