[spoiler]So. I watched Weapons. I was VERY excited for this movie. The teasers, the trailers, the posters, the concept seemed so interesting and intense. The beginning made me feel so paranoid and jumpy. As if ANY moment, there was gonna be a scare. And there was. I jumped and grabbed my chest at the first jumpscare cause I was simply NOT expecting or prepared for it. The second one, I tried to prepare myself for it, still jumped. After those jumpscares though, it simply died down. The intensity wasn’t there. There were some good moments of eeriness, but not to the level seen in the beginning. The characters; Justine was an ok protagonist but rather bland, especially for Julia Garner. Josh Brolin was great as the desperate father searching for answers. Benedict Wong is a terrific actor but ultimately wasted. Alden Erenreich was a fairly dull character that could probably have been cut. Gladys was good and creepy, though she would have been better if she chose the second option the director gave her. More on that next. The writer/director offered Amy Madigan (Gladys) two choices for her character, which I think is a unique concept cause it helps the actor make the character their own. The options were, A) she could be an evil woman who uses dark magic to cure her disease, which is what we see in the final film, or B) a non human that uses bizarre makeup and a wig to poorly mimic humans. AND FOR SOME REASON, SHE WENT WITH THE MOST BASIC OF THE TWO. A non human attempting to mimic humans would have been LEAGUES more interesting and original than a witch. I would have loved to have seen that version. Practical effects were great, especially the bulging eyes. Gladys’ death was also quite gruesome, haven’t seen something like that in a horror for a while. Overall, the movie fell flat for me. I didn’t like the happy ending. All the kids are reunited and Alex’s parents are presumably gonna get better like the kids are talked about?? Come on. The ENTIRE premise is that 17 kids walked into the dark, and NEVER came back. The narrator literally states this. The trailers state this. The posters state this. And then poof, cause people don’t like ambiguous endings, they had to shoehorn in “All the kids got reunited with their parents”. SHOW SOME SPINE. Don’t give me a happy ending, I’m TIRED of happy endings in horror movies. And the story overall? Just some basic dark magic? Not some unknown supernatural force? Leave SOME stuff to the imagination please. You don’t have to show and tell EVERY little detail. And now they’re talking about a prequel to explain Gladys’ origin story, so they can strip away every piece of mystery that may have been left behind. This movie was so hyped, and it felt so empty. So, with that being said, 9/10 acting (largely due to Josh Brolin), 10/10 VFX, 10/10 cinematography, 10/10 jumpscares, even if there were only two, 4/10 plot. Overall ranking, 4.5/10. Wasted potential, wasted cast members, wasted time. Watch Sinners for a good 2025 horror. [/spoiler]