Weapons

get me out of this fuck ass theater and away from that freaky ass lady

9.0 - This is a somewhat tough one. I feel a lot like I did after Longlegs, in that I know I just saw something special, but it left me with so much to think about that I feel like I need to see it again just to process it all (it’s actually striking to me how similar the stories ended up being).

It’s a technical sensation. The tension & suspense built from just the camera work, writing structure, sound design and score are immaculate. I don’t want to say I never knew what was coming next because it did start to click about half way through. It wasn’t the whiplash biggest swing I’ve seen that Barbarian was but it was still fantastic.

Acting wise it confirms to me that Julia Garner was dramatically underutilized in Fantastic Four because she is one of the best emotional & expressionist actors out there right now & to make her whole character monotone & flat is a disservice. She carried the emotional weight of this story beautifully. I’m also happy to see Josh Brolin continue to get major roles. He never really misses.

The layers to the writing also hit heavy. Reading that this story was Cregger’s primary way to process the grief of his best friend’s passing & how each major character is a representative of an emotion he was working through is an incredibly powerful lens to view the story through after the fact.

But it’s tough to rate because I don’t know how much I fully enjoyed the answers?

Do I want to see it again? Absolutely! Did I walk out of the theater thinking “THAT was one of the defining horrors of the decade,” like a lot of others did? Not really. In fact, I’m having a lot of trouble deciding if it was better (or at least more fun than) Together, which I had a ton of fun with (& even more the second time). In fact, there were moments when I was feeling this was just a bit long & was wondering when it was going to start towards a resolution.

I know I still have to give the nod to Weapons because of the technicals. There are shots in this that I thought in real time “I haven’t seen anything like that.” But I can’t help but be the slightest bit let down from my own expectations of the best horror of the year, in what is shaping up to be an absolutely loaded year for the genre.

Second watch coming soon.

Felt like the end climax wasn’t the payoff I was looking for but I loved the ride.