Sure, though I previously used the term “fantasy and magic” to characterize the story line. A plausibly realistic drama isn’t a “documentary”. Speaking for myself, all I was saying is that personally I find movies depicting plausible situations (like A Simple Plan that I reviewed recently, or Anatomy of a Fall that I talked about earlier) more gripping because I can imagine that I’m watching a real-life story unfold. The same is true even for sci-fi films like Interstellar – it’s plausible in part (at least, given some creative license) because as technical adviser, theoretical physicist Kip Thorne was determined to keep it as scientifically plausible as possible. Whereas in Weapons, you essentially have to believe in a witch casting spells.
A lot of this is explained by Cregger’s writing methodology. Cregger wrote the mystery and the resulting fall out before he knew what the solution was. He had already written as far as the cop/James story before he even thought up Aunt Gladys.
I just watched it. Had I heard it was going to be zombies, I probably would have skipped it. But, as you said, it’s not like they’re undead style zombies so that does make it better, imo.
Aunt Gladys-holy shit! Well done, Amy Madigan. The scene that really freaks me out is the whole sequence with Marcus. I’m quite sure I’ve never seen one man caving in another’s face with his head. The way he was running, like an unstoppable force, was very disturbing, and of course the way he was splattered all over the street is one of the most gruesome things I’ve personally seen in a movie (that I can recall at the moment)
I just noticed this dropped on HBO Max. I’m not big on rewatches, but I’m tempted.
Aunt Gladys did a good job of making her character loathsome, so that was good acting.
As others have said, I’m glad I went in blind.
On rewatch I noticed all the subtle changes to scenes when viewed from different POVs and I love this movie even more.
I rewatched as well. With 2 months left in 2025, it will be hard to replace this as the best movie of the year.
To argue the “why didn’t the cops figure it out” point, you have to remember that they don’t know they’re in a horror movie. From their perspective, this was some sort of planned event, either by the kids themselves or at the behest of some bad guy. All the various ring cameras basically just showed the kids running straight out from their house into the darkness. No reason to think they’re all heading in a straight line somewhere because that’s not what people do.
I couldn’t remember where I had seen aunt Gladys before until I was like “Hey, That’s Uncle Buck’s girlfriend!” Same with the cop until “Hey, That’s Han Solo!”
This explains a lot. Usually when there is a supernatural element to a story, there is at least some hint of it given as the story develops. (For example, most of the first third of The Exorcist is the story of a mother desperately moving through the medical system in an attempt to learn what’s wrong with her daughter. But before all that we get a hint—barking dogs; a vision possibly seen by a priest/archeologist—that something not-of-this-world is present.)
In the case of Weapons, the supernatural ‘explanation’ of the mystery seemed to come out of nowhere.
I am not sure how it could have been anything other than supernatural. The nature of the setup implies something weird is happening even if you know nothing else.
Those two statements contradict each other. If it was a planned event, then it makes perfect sense they’d be converging on the same location.
The real reason it’s not worth fretting over why the police didn’t figure it out months earlier is that this is not a detective mystery. It’s a fairytale. A grim (Grimm?) fairytale. Right down to the “once upon a time” (or words to that effect) framing by a child narrator.
Converging yes, but again, people don’t normally run in a perfectly straight line to wherever they’re going, especially if it’s across town.
The thing I didn’t really understand was how abducting the children and keeping them in the basement was supposed to make her well again. Was she somehow feeding off the energy of the people she zombified? She told Alex she thought her parents would make her better but it wasn’t working. Maybe this is just one of those hand-wavey things you just shouldn’t think about too hard.
Yeah. They were so hyper focused on their target they ignored obstacles that a normal person (even a kid) would just go around. You see it at the end when they are attacking people; no attempts to outflank or cut off their prey; just a straight on attack.
Yeah, that’s what is implied. She is basically on the verge of death when she shows up at the house. She starts to get better, but not enough.
My theory is Aunt Gladys was flying under the radar for centuries by carefully selecting victims one at time who probably wouldn’t be missed. As she got really old (even for a witch) she started seeing diminishing returns from single individuals so had to up it to whole families. With Alex, she saw the opportunity to make a big score by having him secure items from everyone in his class. This kind of mass harvest was new to her so she got kind of careless. Not only did she need to hide the kids for future feeding, she needed to do divert or do away with anyone nosing around. A younger, less desperate witch would know better than to attempt such a complicated plan.
Great thoughts, probably makes sense.
I hope no sequel or continuation happens, though. Not even a prequel. Just leave it as is.
Hmmmm… a prequel, you say?
Cregger’s talent is creating stories that go off in totally unpredictable directions. I don’t think he should be wasting his time with franchises.