WEAPONS REVIEW: IT'S 2:17AM, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?
- Jada Trabue
- Aug 16
- 6 min read
From the moment I saw the first trailer for Weapons (2025,) the mystery of these disappeared students drew me in.
So I hit the AMC at the historic mall where one of my all time favorite films, Back To the Future (1985) was filmed (the iconic scene where the DeLorean is sent back to the future.) I grabbed a beverage and hit the IMAX theater for the show. After the iconic Nicole Kidman intro, the magic began.
At first, the film seemed to be a metaphor about school shootings. Maybrook felt like a makeshift name for the tragedy years ago in Connecticut. With moments that pay homage to The Shining (1980,) The Children Under the Stairs (1993,) What Lies Beneath (2000,) Tangled (2010,) Hocus Pocus (1993,) Monster House (2006,) IT (2017,) and more, the allegory has levels. Given the current state of the country and the fact that so much of Horror is reliant on our anxieties, (for instance, fear of censorship in the Quiet Place films) I couldn’t help but view it through the lens of American politics.
Things go down when the circus is in town.
When something goes wrong in America, the first reaction is finding a scapegoat. Who’s to blame here?
On a grander scale, the game distracts from revealing who or what is at the root of the chaos tangling our hair (or in this case) grabbing the root and snatching our literal wigs. Ahh, our fearful leader loves a good toupee. Onward.
America, who is responsible for the suffering of our citizens? The mystery is broken into intriguing segments, which felt key to making this feature work. Brava to Weapons’ bold editing style. Rashomon (1950) walked for this film's structure. It’s brilliant in playing on the trope of responsibility and our natural response to chaos. If someone broke down everyone’s day in Night of the Living Dead (1968) would everyone think they’re the hero?
And who the hell dunnit? Surely not the educator who wasn’t even with the children at the time of their disappearance. We see no blame on the parents whose children were under their direct supervision. *Ring ring*, the camera has such a repulsive and distinct noise that I know when someone at the grocery checkout has a package delivered but SOMEHOW the parents ignored it during the witching hours. It’s 2:17am, do you know where your children are?
We’re made to suspect culprits that are all too familiar:
The assimilating person of color that wants to protect face and do no wrong.
The incompetent law enforcement officer only focused on protecting himself.
The aggressive parent who blames everyone but themselves.
The addict that will do anything for his next high.
The unsuspecting little boy with strange behavior.
The truth is they are all victims of Gladys. She resembles our current “leader” wearing clownlike makeup, spewing lies, wreaking havoc, and hiding behind all of the trouble she’s caused. Gladys has been around since “consumption” days and isn’t pleasant in her much larger impact this time. Much like our convicted felon-in-office, she’s at the end of her road but still finds something to latch onto and feed on for power. She represents a dictator, promising one thing but acting on another.
Sidebar: Honestly, I’d be irritated if my parents told me my draining aunt was coming to stay for a second term, I mean time. Like can somebody step up and cut this short? I know young Alex was irritated as hell.
“First she came for the parents” but that wasn’t enough; the conservative family and the traditional household were a start but she needed more power. Reasons why no one wants extended guests in their house; they’re always needing something. Who else can she manipulate? Gladys threatened Alex if he didn't follow her authoritarian orders, ironically, claiming she can make his parents eat each other (pause.) She latches onto his fear and vulnerability, promising he will get his parents back and be free of his bullies. This is a metaphor for oppressors feeling targeted by DEI and Persons Of Color in their space, to take on the “enemy”.
Would I be too radical in saying this is how ICE is controlled? Nonetheless, the little boy holds the children in Gladys’ basement-prison-energy farm. He feeds them chicken noodle soup in their own Alligator Alcatraz, I mean Auschwitz, damnit, basement but unlike Campbells the possibility is slim for escape.
Now that the parasite is fed, she finds a way to keep out intruders by physically turning people into weapons. Put your MAGA, I mean “thinking caps” on - who are her victims? The people that are selfish and would rather find a scapegoat? The police officer that fucked up and hid evidence to save his own face?
Clock this: That police brutality scene bothered me because the care he took with the white male was off-putting considering that if that were a Black Male, it would be a completely different story.
Benedict Wong played the ONLY person of color in this story, who protected his image to keep his job. Once the witch got ahold of him, the character killed his own husband. This act of self-hate is reminiscent of the Black politician with a white wife who famously voted against interracial marriage. Josh Brolin’s character was the white, male adult bully - selfish enough to physically push kids out of his way to find his son, only caring about how the situation directly affected him. Interestingly, the witch was aware of his selfishness, making it feel like a trap. Of course, Austin Abrams’ drug addict character only cared about the kids’ location in regards to the reward money to buy more drugs. It’s easy to control someone that is willing to do anything for their wants. These are the targets in America's current stage of politics.
The direct attack on students and education and fear of what a single woman outside of parasitic control might be teaching are very real in today’s climate. Julia Garner’s character’s actions alone, however, do not save the children. It has to come from within.
The very persons that are upholding this system must be destroyed: the groups of selfish people that don’t think about anyone but themselves but also Alex - the one who has been lied to and used by the oppressor must destroy Gladys as she did the town. Alex must face his fears, risk his life, and use Gladys’ weapons against her to release the children. Much like a revolt against authoritarian governments, its total chaos when the people at the bottom, the children, wake up and fight back against the evil, old, raggedy, racist, disgusting, ugly, monstrous, outdated, clown-ass parasite at the top.
This is what happens when the barricades are dismounted and the singular evil is confronted by the very people they harm. She gets ripped apart like the baby in Mother (2017.)
Gladys is eaten in the end contrary to what she told Alex she could make his parents do. Irony? The very systems upheld and implemented by outdated ideals feed on the misfortune of people and fear of others. We’re familiar with this as Baby Boomer rhetoric, fearful of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Millennials are the single teachers in this story trying to make a living, aware of mishappenings without the tools to dismantle it. They have just enough information to recognize things gone wrong.
Whitney Houston is right: the children are the future and the future of our country relies heavily on the growth and use of their minds. What they learn in school can open their minds to talking animals or censor them from the true histories of this country and things like CRT. A lot of food for thought here; enough for a parasite to feed on or America to scapegoat as just another Horror film.
Heisman of the year AKA Aunt Gladys leads to such a fun ending! Plenty of laughter but the tonal shift was excellent. You can feel the joy in the writing. I gave it a 4 out of 5 simply for the lack of racial intersectionality. There was only one Black kid in the basement, but then again, that's how middle American towns are. Honestly, a Black parent would sense their kids waking up in the middle of the night and rise up like the monster of Frankenstein to stop them in their tracks. Because not only was I NOT sneaking out of the house in a sundown town, I damn sure wasn’t opening that front door without permission because I didn’t pay not one bill. So maybe just like the police brutality scene, it was commentary within itself. After all, I said this was about America and Black people aren’t often counted in politics of America outside of pandering for a vote. Then again, maybe the Black people just were at their Black jobs.
*Stares to imaginary confessional cam.
I look forward to more of Director Zach Cregger’s original works featuring incompetent cops, maternal monsters, and old people in dark basements. His tight knit storytelling makes us reflect on the real weapons of today: the floating AR-15 against the minds of the youth. Sharp needles against a willful fist. The lack of belief and understanding without cameras; if technology was functioning properly and not manipulated, the mystery would’ve been solved and the cop would’ve been arrested in 48hrs. But we’ll save that for another story. All in all, Weapons captured the cultural anxieties of America’s current social and political climate, the parasitic nature of power, and our collective feeding on the selfishness of human nature.
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