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  • Movie Review of the Year!!

    Movie Review of the Year!!

    Christmas Crackers to catch up on and 3 Turkeys to avoid, Part 1

    Movie Review of the Year 2025 illustration

    So, Christmas is over – a big Woo Hoo (!) or “Oh no!”, which largely depends on whether you are over 13 or not. Xmas, at least in our Western European culture, is a great leveller in that we all feel the same emotions and go through universal experiences – feelings stuffed with turkey and still hoovering / cleaning up mysterious stuff from the carpet. All of us running on the remnants of Baileys and Christmas pudding.

    Let us keep up / resuscitate the jolly holiday feeling with the 1st wordsbywright.com Movie Review of the Year!! Hooray!!

    A little warning though before you comment in anger (please comment!!) or bewilderment. The top five ranking is in no particular order, just from when they came out in the year, and I am also not a professional movie writer / journalist — though I am open to offers. I was also limited in that Odeon is my cinema of choice and convenience, so real Indie movie lovers may feel a little miffed.

    So, what do the professionals think before I give my expert advice? Cross the year-end, and you get lists from Empire Online, Little White Lies and Sight & Sound (BFI). A loose critical consensus emerged rather than one definitive Top Ten. Big crossover titles included Sinners, One Battle After Another, Sentimental Value, Weapons and The Mastermind, while more auteur-driven and international choices such as Sirât, It Was Just an Accident, Dry Leaf and Resurrection kept the arthouse flag flying.

    Meanwhile, mainstream audiences voted with their wallets, making A Minecraft Movie, Lilo & Stitch, Superman, Jurassic World: Rebirth and Wicked: For Good the biggest earners across the UK and USA. In short: critics, cinephiles and popcorn-munchers didn’t always agree — which brings us neatly to what I thought… oh, and there will be spoilers.

    My Top Movies of 2025 (in order of release in UK)

    1/ A Complete Unknown (Released: Jan 25, Director: James Mangold)🎭 Top Actors: Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro

    🎞️ Summary: A thoughtful biographical drama tracing Bob Dylan’s early rise in the 1960s New York folk scene, from scrappy acoustic sets to causing shockwaves with his electric sound. Timothée Chalamet channels the enigmatic icon with magnetic intensity, capturing both the genius and the mercurial spirit that made Dylan a cultural legend.

    Verdict: Who knew this would be so good and that Dylan was such a Big Deal back in the day? Wasn’t much into folk at the time but I am now and that says a lot about the movie. Admirably, Chalamet plays him both as an inspirational folk hero and pathfinder but also as an “asshole”. Great performances, lovely evocation of the 60’s and most importantly, cracking songs. At the time, I thought it was “intriguing, thrilling and illuminating” – mmm, lovely. See it if you can. 10/10

    Did you know that? Timothée Chalamet actually performed many of Bob Dylan’s songs live on set using period‑correct mics and instruments — something he trained intensely for rather than lip‑syncing later.

    2/ Sinners (Released: April 2025, Director: Ryan Coogler)🎭 Top Actors: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell

    🎞️ Summary: A genre-bending mash-up of Southern Gothic, horror, and musical vibes, Sinners pits vampire mayhem against the soulful backdrop of the Mississippi Delta. Michael B. Jordan’s dual performance keeps you hooked like a blues riff you never knew you needed.

    Verdict: In a year of quite bonkers releases, this was a surprise box office hit. A disconcerting mix of vampire shenanigans, steamy sex ,rollicking blues and folk music that should not really work, but it does to exhilarating effect. Michael B. Jordan holds the gory mess together gloriously, though one of the vampires Irish dancing may test your patience a bit. In my review book, I said it was “engaging, well-acted, gruesome and funny”. Shakespeare, eat your heart out. 9/10

    Did you know that? Sinners dominated the 2025 Critics’ Choice nominations, leading the pack with 17 total nods — including Best Picture and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan.

    3/ Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Released: May 2025, Director: Christopher McQuarrie)🎭 Top Actors: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames

    🎞️ Summary: The globe-trotting IMF crew faces its biggest challenge yet — a rogue AI — in a film packed with high-octane stunts and impossible aerial antics. It’s equal parts emotional send-off for Ethan Hunt and another reminder that Tom Cruise will never stop defying gravity.

    Verdict: Could not really have been a better finale to this excellently entertaining series, in the opinion of this fan. Truly awe-inspiring stunts, thrilling set pieces and perfectly judged performances. Of course, the plot was ridiculous and the Mac Guffin stakes too high as our lads and lasses fought the “Entity”. At the time, I thought it was “exhilarating, exciting, action packed and a classic” – must have been having a good week! 10/10

    Did you know that? Tom Cruise set a Guinness World Record for most “burning parachute jumps” while filming stunts for this entry — he literally tends to do impossible stuff himself.

    4/ Bring Her Back (Released: August 2025, Directors: Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou)🎭 Top Actors: Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Sally Hawkins

    🎞️ Summary: A gripping Australian supernatural folk-horror about two stepsiblings forced into the eerie rituals of their new foster mother after a tragic loss. Atmospheric and unsettling, it blends haunting mystery with familial trauma while Sally Hawkins delivers a standout performance that keeps you watching… and maybe looking over your shoulder afterwards.

    Verdict: It has been called one of the best horrors of the year and it is hard to disagree. Flew under the radar a little but it is original, shocking and a bit of a wild ride. This Australian gem meshes up themes of grief and alienation with some truly gruesome moments. Do not watch it on your own, unless you want nightmares. Who would have thought that Paddington’s mum would have a dark side? Mmm. I called it “shocking, gruesome, a true horror and disturbing”. Sleep well. 9/10

    Did you know that? Sora Wong, who plays Piper, had zero acting experience before landing this role, having been cast after her mother saw the casting call on Facebook.

    5/ Weapons (Released: August 2025, Director: Zach Cregger)🎭 Top Actors: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich

    🎞️ Summary: A wild horror/genre thriller that takes the “predictable jump scare” and tosses it out the window, Weapons is clever, chaotic and strangely inventive. It’s like if your Airbnb horror movie and a Kubrick fever-dream had a very loud baby.

    Verdict: Grabs you by the short and curlies and does not really let go. Another tale of abused / missing children and grief. As it says in the trailer: “a lot of people die in really weird ways” — and boy they do, in the aftermath of a whole class of primary age children going missing at the same time. A heady brew of witchcraft, gore and fear that is played with conviction. When I managed to calm down, I wrote that it was “unsettling, scary (!), original and crazy”. Enjoy. 10/10

    Did you know that? Weapons was a critical and box office hit, grossing over $269 million on a modest $38 million budget and earning multiple award nominations — including praise for Amy Madigan’s performance.

    6/ One Battle After Another (Released: Sept 2025, Director: Paul Thomas Anderson)🎭 Top Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro

    🎞️ Summary: Equal parts political satire, action buffoonery and heartfelt drama, this Paul Thomas Anderson epic dives headlong into modern America’s chaos with flair. DiCaprio leads a ragtag cast through a relentless clash of comedy and catharsis that feels like cinema on espresso.

    Verdict: David Fear (Rolling Stone) described the film as “a thundering, dizzying epic” and praised how it combines thrilling set pieces with a timeless tale of revolutionaries and their next generation. It is also an “epic screwball adventure” that is sometimes violent, sometimes tender, sometimes surreal but never, ever boring. Strap yourself in as you are never sure where the plot is going and tonally it is all over the place. This reviewer called it “dramatic, tense, wild and uneven”. 9/10

    Did you know that? Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling epic not only drew major awards buzz but made his long-simmering dream of adapting elements from Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland feel cinematically real — a project tied to Anderson for nearly 20 years.

    7/ Bugonia (Released: Sept 2025, Director: Yorgos Lanthimos)🎭 Top Actors: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone

    🎞️ Summary: A bizarre black comedy from Lanthimos that feels like a surreal fever dream about alien absurdity and human quirks. Stone and Plemons anchor the weirdness with delectably dry performances that make you laugh — then think about it for days.

    Verdict: As befitting of the director of Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, this is a surreal mix of philosophy, comedy and conspiracy theory . Do aliens exist and are they controlling us? How can we fight their malign influence in an unbelieving world? The Los Angeles Times said that: “…it is a hilarious movie with no hope for the future of humanity… What optimism there is lies only in the title,” and AP offered: “Bugonia has … an apocalyptic air of resignation that sounds a chastening death knell.” I wrote that it was “off-kilter, well-acted and surprisingly compelling” then had a stiff drink and went to bed early, weeping. 10/10

    Did you know that? Bugonia is an English-language remake of the 2003 South Korean cult movie Save the Green Planet! — but with a twist: the lead corporate villain was gender swapped and tailored to Emma Stone’s unique comic style.

    Honourable mentions / recommendations from 2025…

    • Nosfrautu ( creepy , atmospheric Dracula remake)
    • Brigid Jones: Mad About the Boy ( funny, engaging British Rom Com farewell)
    • The Last Showgirl ( Pam Anderson bittersweet indie)
    • Warfare ( tense Gulf War action)
    • The Conjuring : Last Rites ( very effective , well-acted chiller)
    • The Long Walk ( Steven King adaptation of gruelling story)

    Whether you’ve binged the blockbusters, cheered for the surprises, or shuddered at the all of the horror, 2025 gave us cinema to remember — and a few nightmares to laugh about. Here’s hoping 2026 keeps the popcorn flying!

  • Movie Review: Bugonia (2025)

    Movie Review: Bugonia (2025)

    “ The workers gather pollen for the Queen…but the bees, they’re dying…and that’s the way they planned it…to make us the same as the bees”

    Bugonia (2025)

    DIRECTOR: Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster (2015), Poor Things (2023), Kinds of Kindness (2024)

    WRITER: Will Tracy

    MAIN CAST (CHARACTERS): Emma Stone (Michelle Fuller), Jesse Plemons (Teddy Gatz), Aidan Delbis (Don), Stavros Halkias (Casey), Alicia Silverstone (Sandy)

    Weirdness and Eccentricity in Modern Hollywood

    Weirdness and eccentricity seem to be the “new normal” now in Hollywood, and HEY, let’s suck it up! Horror fans, we are already living in a golden age – let’s look at the evidence and consider the downright spooky Weapons (unsettlingly witchcraft, gory, eerie child abductions), Bring Her Back (about grief, abuse, Satanism, etc.), and it hasn’t been long since we “enjoyed” the wackiness and originality of The Substance (body horror, a meditation on our obsession with beauty and aging), although that was, in my opinion, ruined by the gross-out ending.

    Into this gory breach steps Yorgos Lanthimos – Greek director of Poor Things (2023) and Kinds of Kindness (2024) – and if you are not familiar with his style and themes, your head will be spinning because Bugonia is a pitch-black wild ride of a movie.

    The story – spoiler free.  

    So, what is it about? Frequent Lanthimos collaborators Emma Stone (Michelle Fuller) and Jesse Plemons (Teddy Gatz) give committed and intense performances. On the surface, Bugonia is a dark comedy/thriller about Teddy, a conspiracy-obsessed beekeeper, and his cousin Don. Teddy is convinced that Michelle Fuller (Stone), a powerful pharmaceutical CEO, is secretly an alien planning to destroy Earth. With the help of his cousin Don, he kidnaps her, and the bulk of the film plays out in the basement where he interrogates her, tests her, and demands she confess her alien identity.

    Teddy believes that there is a limited window — linked to a lunar eclipse — to negotiate with her alien “people.” Coupled with this, there are flashbacks that explore Teddy’s past (including his relationship with his mother, Sandy) and what drove him to his paranoia. So far, so gloomy. The film raises questions about power, delusion, corporate greed, and belief — it’s as much a satire of modern society as it is a thriller/horror.

    Big themes.

    It is a paranoid, slow-burning car crash of a movie, with some big themes being thrown around. At its core, Bugonia is about the attraction of conspiracy theories — how people can become utterly convinced of a narrative that explains their fears, frustrations, or traumas. The film plays with the tension between what we believe, what we want to believe, and what we can’t bring ourselves to confront.

    It is also about power and authority – the dynamic between Teddy and Michelle is a study in power imbalance. Like much of Lanthimos’s work, Bugonia is fascinated by absolute certainty in an absurd world. Characters cling to rigid beliefs despite contradictory evidence — a hallmark of Lanthimos’s dark humour. It is also a satire of modern fear culture, dealing with online conspiracy communities, anti-corporate outrage, apocalyptic thinking, and the rise of “alternative truths.” It is about what we consider monstrous or “alien” and how easily we dehumanise people who scare us or challenge our worldview.

    Great performances.

    All of this would be quite heavy, ponderous, and depressing if it wasn’t for the joy and skill of the central performances. Emma Stone has undoubted ability to balance ambiguity, control, and vulnerability, and Jesse Plemons gives a quietly explosive performance — possibly one of his best. The film blends and bends genres (dark comedy, psychological thriller, social satire), and the message of Lanthimos seems to be that it is ridiculous to have absolute certainty in an absurd world. Characters cling to rigid beliefs despite contradictory evidence — a hallmark of Lanthimos’s dark humour.

    Critical Reception

    Critics have, rightly, raved about it and made some interesting and insightful points: Robert Daniels (RogerEbert.com) says: “Lanthimos spends much of Bugonia … questioning who the monsters and tyrants are and what is the tangibly human and emotionally alien … the film is an enraged picture … mad at humanity.”

    Meagan Navarro (Cinema Blend) remarks: “The sardonic, genre‑bending satire takes aim at modern echo chambers and their erosion of humanity. … a cynical condemnation of our self‑destructive nature.”

    Nick Schager (Daily Beast) points out: “Stone is a mesmerizing riot in this bleak satire … as is her co-star Jesse Plemons, who matches her intensity and manages to outdo her craziness.”

    Owen Gleiberman (Soap Central) says: The script is an “ingeniously witty and incisive exposé of the duelling mindsets it’s about.”

    Lanthimos’s Signature Style

    Lanthimos is a unique and lauded filmmaker – as Wikipedia succinctly puts it:“His films often feature uniquely framed cinematography, deadpan acting, and characters with stilted speech… they mix absurdist dark comedy with violent and sexually explicit content… and often explore the nature of power and its impact on the people who are vying for, using, or being exploited or influenced by it.”

    Bugonia grabs you by the short and curlies … and does not let go until the (crazy) ending. If you leave your preconceptions of what a movie should be like and what it should say or mean, you are going to love it. It is weird and heartfelt, logical and illogical, with shades of light and dark – hell, you may have guessed the ending well before then, but what a wonderfully mind-bending trip you will have been on.

    Score: 9/10

  • TV Review 2 :Celebrity SAS, Who Dares Wins ( 2025)

    TV Review 2 :Celebrity SAS, Who Dares Wins ( 2025)

    “The World is a dangerous place … we, as a country, need to ready … we want to show these celebrity recruits what it is to prepare for war”

    Network/Platform: Channel 4

    Elite Directing Staff – Mark “Billy” Billingham; Jason “Foxy” Fox; Rudy Reyes; Chris Oliver.

    Celebrities (selected) – Adebayo “The Beast” Akinfenwa, Troy Deeney, Conor Benn, Louie Spence, Tasha Ghouri, Harry Clark …

    Amazingly, this machoistic sideshow is still going after seven series, with the only difference being that because of a quiet summer at home I have been forced to watch it with my family. The spiel on the Channel 4 website is a little understated – “Celebrities who think they have what it takes to pass the SAS selection are pushed to their limits, and beyond, by an elite team of ex-special forces operators.”

    And what a bunch of cynical and aggressive operators they are: Mark “Billy” Billingham – Chief Instructor (Former SAS Sergeant Major and a long-standing instructor on the show); Jason “Foxy” Fox – Directing Staff (Ex-Royal Marine Commando who also served in the Special Boat Service); Rudy Reyes – Directing Staff (Former U.S. Recon Marine, brought in as part of the DS team); and Chris Oliver – Directing Staff (Former Royal Marine Mountain Leader and ex-SBS operator). They may be lovely fellas off camera, yet they certainly do not hold back as they take turns to harass, bully, gee up or question the motivation and determination of the “celebrities.”

    All this because the celebs show weakness and fear in the face of seemingly impossible tasks – bungee jump off a 150 ft viaduct anyone? Tick. Launch yourself off a moving speedboat on to a passing helicopter? No worries, lads. Ready to search, find and rescue a hostage from a building whilst being poisoned by CS gas? Bring it on!!

    The truth is that anyone, never mind out-of-shape and pampered celebs, would need a six-month training course just to be at the same level as Foxy and his mates. I suppose part of the “fun” then is seeing them set up to fail, which many of them do under the unkind comments of the operators. In the main title, for example, Rebecca Loos says “I’ve had a lifetime of opinions around me… Absolutely no way in hell, I am going to give up.” Yet in the face of the bungee jump challenge, she gives up.

    A common complaint, I know, but are these people really “celebrities” or just slightly known people? Did you know who Harry Clark – Winner of The Traitors (UK), season 2 – or Michaella McCollum – one half of the “Peru Two,” former drug smuggler turned author – were? Me neither.

    In truth though, they are still people looking to fulfil a challenge, to self-validate or exercise some demons by submitting themselves to this. If they fail a task or underperform, they are blindfolded and “taken in” for questioning by two of the lads. Some of the demons are indeed terrible – a miscarriage here, a prison term there, a child who had an exorcism performed on them – and the lads are motivational and encouraging. Yet we wonder if this is the most suitable environment in which to legitimately voice their past trauma. I’m not so sure.

    The critics are divided: The Times offered a balanced, three-star view, recognizing both the emotional weight and dramatic moments, while The Scottish Sun slammed the series for diluted celebrity resilience and sensational casting. Meanwhile, in audience circles—particularly on Reddit and among some IMDb users—the show continues to resonate. Viewers praised its emotional drama and entertainment value, even as others criticized its authenticity and format. IMDb user reviews veered from the sublime: “Best bit of tv ever… I just love this series… the psychological [sic] aspect alongside the laugh out loud moments… just tv gold” to the unimpressed: “The show has really gone downhill. Totally unrealistic selection… Celebrities Lol.”

    If you want action and people taking on the toughest challenges on TV (not to mention the basic food, sanitation and sleeping conditions) with grit, determination and some humour, you will have come to the right place. To me, the jingoistic and militaristic tone and nature of the show does not appeal. That’s life, I suppose – now where did I leave that grenade?

    Score 4/10

  • Movie Review 2 – Mission Impossible , Dead Reckoning part 2.

    Movie Review 2 – Mission Impossible , Dead Reckoning part 2.

    “Trust me- one last time”  Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning(2025)

    Starring: Tom Cruise,

    Written : Christopher McQuarrie

    Directed: Christopher McQuarrie

    So, this is it. Cor blimey. When Ethan Hunt utters the fateful words to appease his political masters we know or hope that he is talking to us too “ Trust me – for one last time”. What a wild ride it has been for us the fans for the last 30 years. Yes, readers , impartiality will fly out the window today as I confirm that I am an uber fan of the MI series. I have been intrigued , excited and truly entertained by the jaw-dropping stunts, the preposterous set-pieces, the camaraderie of the IMF spy crew. And not forgetting the sprinting and the prosthetic mask silliness. If you don’t know the set up / story by know , well my friend, you have wandered into the wrong screen. Does Tom deliver? Do the IMF go through hell to save the world? Can you see awesome stunts and emotional turn arounds ? Hell, yeah. There is a distinct and ,hopefully, definite sense of an ending here, a much-deserved victory-lap for this most consistently thrilling of franchises.

    As always ,the movie starts with Ethan reviewing a message that outlines his next mission before it , inevitably , self-destructs after 5 seconds . But this time we are treated to a kind of Mission Impossible greatest hits video complied by no other than the president herself. A tape that not only recaps plot but also throws in umpteen clips of the previous films in the saga. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt rightly looks puzzled as to why he’s being told – and shown – all of this. A fly in the ointment is the treatment of the fans (us) regarding all this exposition and explaining of what is going on– The Final Reckoning isn’t just content to recap things once or twice. Across its overlong 170-minute running time, it’s comfortable flashing back to other movies in the franchise with some regularity, and – if needed – sitting the characters down and getting them to explain it all again.

    After all ,who is going to go into this not having refreshed themselves by watching part 1 again? As much as it nods to the series as a whole, however, this is first and foremost a direct sequel to 2023’s Dead Reckoning, which first established the sentient AI a-hole the Entity as the ultimate cyber-baddie. Picking up months later, the world has now irrevocably changed: governments have collapsed, nuclear arsenals have been compromised, societal order has crumbled. And only one man can save us. The villainous Gabriel (Esai Morales) is on the loose, and the AI antagonist The Entity is going to destroy everything. Tom Cruise versus AI? Bring it on. Cue the action and the guts of the piece as we see Ethan Hunt, Simon Pegg’s Benji, Ving Rhames’ Luther, Hayley Atwell’s Grace, Greg Tarzan Davis’ Degas and Pom Klementieff’s Paris as the last line of resistance, with The Entity trying to engineer nuclear war. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning bafflingly keeps getting pulled back to earth by an inexhaustible desire to keep explaining things, or to throw in a reference, or try to describe the ever-complicating plot. But for this viewer , this is forgivable when Tom and co. go big on the set pieces.

    The two major set-pieces are among the best Mission has ever managed. Where the earlier films felt like tightly wound, ground-level espionage thrills, this is storytelling on a vast scale. This is fundamentally  a war film, and a Cold War-era one at that, with the Entity forcing superpowers into military brinkmanship, and CIA head-turned-President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) forced into unthinkable choices, It sets the grandest, most apocalyptic stakes in a Mission film yet, with nothing less than “the total annihilation of humankind” on the table.

    Thankfully, they are among the best Mission has ever managed. The first is a true nail-biter and nerve-shredder, in which Ethan makes a daring, potentially deadly ocean dive to retrieve the Entity’s source code from a sunken submarine. It features one of the great rotating sets of cinema, equalling 2001: A Space Odyssey or Inception in its disorientating brilliance, its potent application of production design.

    And the final showdown, in which all the chess pieces finally converge, sees Ethan engage in a jaw-dropping battle in the skies, Cruise hopping casually between two biplanes, with some of the maddest, most astonishing stunts he has ever achieved. His commitment to spectacle and showmanship remains extraordinary. Old enough to qualify for a pensioner’s bus pass, he has never been more game — and is still running, relentlessly. Running like his life depends on it. Running like cinema depends on it. He is the effective self-appointed UN ambassador to the movies, the last true Movie Star. If this is indeed his final mission, it’s quite the appropriate swansong.

    Tense, dense, and stressful, it’s hardly the feel-good hit of the summer. But it speaks to McQuarrie’s fascinations across his now four Mission films — his ability to paint on both a colossal canvas and an intimate character one. Our lives, as Henry Czerny’s Kittridge says in the first film, and as Ving Rhames’ Luther repeats in this one, are the sum of our choices, and much of Final Reckoning is about understanding Hunt’s choices across his life, all apparently culminating here. He is a man dedicated to saving the world at whatever cost, yes, but he is also dedicated to his friends, to his decency.

  • Movie Review no 1 Weapons (2025)

    Movie Review no 1 Weapons (2025)

    “In this story… a lot of people die in a lot of really weird ways… you’re not gonna find it in the news.”

    Weapons (2025)

    Starring: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams as James

    Written & directed by: Zach Cregger

    Well, horror fans, what a year we’re having! Sinners was an unexpected smash—a crazy mash-up of psychotic zombies (are there any other kinds?), Southern sultriness, and hillbilly music. Then came Final Destination: Bloodlines, proving there are still inventive ways to bump off your main players—crushed in a rubbish truck, anyone? And we can’t forget the truly awesome Bring Her Back, an Aussie head-trip into grief and unhinged madness (see my review).

    Having watched Weapons last night, I feel compelled to write this as a kind of mental exorcism—just in case I start dreaming about it. Or nightmares. It is the cat’s pyjamas—or the dog’s b*****Ks—of this year’s crop and scared the bejusus out of this horror fan.

    Weapons is set in the small town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, where 17 elementary school children mysteriously vanish on the same night at 2:17 a.m., leaving only one child, Alex. The film is structured in character-specific chapters, each offering a different perspective: a distressed parent (Josh Brolin), the teacher (Julia Garner), a conflicted police officer (Alden Ehrenreich), a chaotic drug addict (Austin Abrams), and the lone child survivor, Alex (Cary Christopher). This fractionated narrative (a la Pulp Fiction) keeps jump scares unpredictable and heightens tension throughout.

    As the story unfolds, unexpected and unsettling forces emerge, blending mystery, psychological horror, and surreal dread. The storytelling remains deliberately ambiguous, raising emotional and symbolic questions rather than providing clear-cut answers. We piece together the protagonists bit by bit, and the pacing—unusually slow for a horror after the initial shock of the children disappearing—encourages the audience to speculate: alien abduction, mass kidnapping, or cult activity? Hints abound, but I won’t spoil anything. Red herrings and ominous asides keep you guessing. Why is the teacher, Justine (Julia Garner), so obsessed with Alex? Is the anger of bereft parent Archer Graff (Josh Brolin) a smokescreen? And what about the ex-alcoholic cop Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich)—is it his suspicious behavior or that weird moustache?

    There are some weighty themes at play for a horror film. Trauma, grief, fear, and possible metaphors for school violence thread through the narrative, yet Cregger leaves interpretation open-ended. The performances are superb: Garner, Brolin, and Abrams deliver emotional depth and tension with nuance and subtlety.

    Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have praised the film’s tonal originality—a blend of horror and hilarity—and Cregger’s refusal to rely on typical horror tropes. Brian Tallerico (RogerEbert.com) notes: “One of the greatest strengths of Cregger’s ambitious script is its abject refusal to connect every dot in the manner that so much ‘elevated horror’ has done in recent years.” Peter Debruge (Variety) adds: “Regardless of how you feel about the bittersweet ending … Cregger has achieved something remarkable here, crafting a cruel and twisted bedtime story of the sort the Brothers Grimm might have spun—not the kid-friendly Disney version, mind you.” Others describe it as “wildly creepy,” “bleakly hilarious,” “suffocatingly tense,” and “unforgettable.” All are accurate, and one thing is for sure—you’re in for a wild ride that will linger.

    My only quibble is the inevitable descent into an over-the-top blood-and-gore finale. Modern FX toolkits often sacrifice subtlety for spectacle, as seen in Get Out (2017) and the almost-great The Substance (2024). That said, it does not spoil Weapons—the suspense, weirdness, and evilness have already done their work.

    Enjoy… just don’t have nightmares.

    Score: 9/10