Movie Review: Weapons

In another effort to stand out, the new movie "Weapons" had a starting time of 2:17 PM, to coincide with a pivotal moment in the movie. This is definitely an idea I have never seen before. For a horror movie, this one has more than its share of over-the-top, way too violent scenes, including one where an insane man crashes his head into the head of another man, way too many times. Is it necessary to kill another person several times over? We get it, this person is dead.

This story is about 17 children who ran from their homes late one night and are missing for weeks, with a narrative that is told out of order, reminiscent of the storytelling method in "Pulp Fiction" (1994). There is a very old witch-like woman, played by Amy Madigan, who casts spells using blood and old tree branches, and can put people in a coma-like state, ordering them to kill other people, or sit at a dinner table, while stabbing their faces with a fork (another scene that went on way too long). This film is insane, disturbing, crazy, and overly violent, and is not a movie for kids who are not older than 17.

Weapons stars Julia Garner as Justine Gandy, the schoolteacher whose students have gone missing, Josh Brolin plays Archer Graff, one of the parents of a missing child, who harasses the police to investigate and eventually investigates what happened to the 17 missing children himself. The ending of this horror movie involves one of the most disturbing scenes I have ever seen in any movie, once again, way too much and way over the top unnecessary.

For some reason, the Rotten Tomatoes rating is a ridiculously high 96% for a movie that should be at best 75% only for some original ideas. My rating is 75% and a small recommendation only for the most die-hard horror movie fans who like to see an extreme gore-fest.