Film promotional art (fair use)

(19) WEAPONS (2025)

“This is a true story that happened in my town. A lot of people die in a lot of really weird ways in this story, but you’re not gonna find it in the news. So this one Wednesday is like a normal day for the whole school, but today was different. Every other class had all their kids, but Mrs. Gandy’s room was totally empty. And do you know why? Because the night before, at 2:17 in the morning, every kid woke up, got out of bed, walked downstairs, and into the dark. And they never came back.”

2025 was a hit year for horror – Sinners, 28 Years Later, and Weapons – as the only films that lured me to the cinema (rather than streaming) were horror.

Weapons is a “horror mystery film with elements of black comedy”, in a non-linear narrative around the premise set up by the opening narration, albeit I had not expected the black comedy – the climactic scene might well have had the Benny Hill theme (Yakety Sax) playing over it.

Of course, that premise only works because the police and authorities in the Pennsylvania town of Maybrook are blind, incompetent or both – but who cares? The film “has achieved something remarkable here, crafting a cruel and twisted bedtime story of the sort the Brothers Grimm might have spun”.

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)