By MICHAEL GINGOLD

Starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin and Alden Ehrenreich
Written and directed by Zach Cregger
New Line/Warner Bros.

Every so often, a movie comes along that has me forgoing our usual practice of running trailers at the end of our reviews. New Line/Warner Bros.’ previews for WEAPONS don’t give away too much plotwise, but even the shots seen in their quick cuts are far better experienced for the first time when viewed in the movie itself. WEAPONS is full of surprises big and small, and scares too, working just as effectively as a mystery as a horror film.

Encoring from his sleeper success BARBARIAN, writer/director Zach Cregger takes a similar narrative approach in his sophomore feature, jumping from one character to another and backtracking in time to reveal new and different sides of his story. This one doesn’t cover as much geographic ground, being more tightly focused on the small town of Maybrook. Opening narration in a young girl’s voice establishes both a dark-fairy-tale tone and a matter-of-fact introduction to some truly terrible events that she says really happened in this community two years ago, and that no one wants to talk about now. The initial focus is on Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), a teacher at Maybrook Elementary School who arrives in class one morning to find 17 of her third-grade pupils are absent, with only little Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher) sitting at his desk. It soon transpires that all of his classmates left their beds at 2:17 a.m. the previous night, ran out of their homes and vanished into the dark.

Needless to say, both the authorities and the townspeople want to know what Justine and Alex might know about the disappearances, though both insist they have no idea what happened to the missing kids. Unfortunately for Justine, she has just enough questionable incidents in her past to make her a plausible suspect in many people’s eyes, particularly those of Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), father of one of the absent boys. As played by Garner, Justine is an instantly sympathetic protagonist yet one who is intriguingly flawed, dealing with the pressures of her situation with drink and the rekindling of an affair with local married cop Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich).

Brolin and Ehrenreich are equally strong as, respectively, a papa bear who will stop at nothing to find his son and a mouse of a man who takes out his insecurities on a local stoner, James (Austin Abrams), whom he catches indulging in some petty crime. Also playing key roles in the unfolding horrific drama are Justine’s principal, Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong–yes, Silver Surfer, Thanos and Wong in one movie!), and…well, there’s another terrific, striking performance that shouldn’t be named or described in any way to preserve some of the surprises in the second half. All that should further be said about the plot is that after WEAPONS switches its sights from Justine to Archer, his portion ends with a startlingly violent confrontation that wrenches the story in a new direction.

Cregger weaves the tapestry of his tale with a masterful control belying that this is just his second feature. While, as noted above, he’s working in a smaller physical scope than in BARBARIAN, he broadens the personal focus, presenting a community desperate for answers regarding an inexplicable event that could have one of a dozen explanations. The writer/director catches us up in trying to figure it out too, dropping hints and suggestions of various possibilities until he slowly but surely narrows down to the truth in the home stretch. There are some nice “a-ha!” moments to further engage the viewer as revelations are made, even though Cregger has done such a good job laying out the puzzle pieces that it feels more inevitable than overwhelming when they ultimately snap into place. Yet he then rallies with one of the most savage and satisfying finales in many a moon, one that provides all the catharsis you could ask for while remaining true to all that has gone before.

On top of being a gripping who-or-what-dunit, WEAPONS is damn frightening, shot through with an invigorating streak of dark humor. Cregger’s storytelling skills are matched by his command of atmosphere, and he and cinematographer Larkin Seiple adroitly mix close-ups and point-of-view shots that build breath-tightening tension with exhilarating mobile camerawork racing along with the action. The score by Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay and Cregger himself adds plenty of eerie accompaniment, while Jason Collins contributes seriously nasty makeup effects that punctuate the accumulating suspense with blunt-force jolts and squeams. WEAPONS confirms Cregger as a major talent on the horror scene, one with an original vision and a commitment to character and the pleasures of storytelling as well as scaring the hell out of us.