Weapons

Another Oscar winner for Saturday night and definitely one worth watching without too many spoilers if possible. The premise is that one night at 2:17 in the morning, 17 young children from the same elementary school class got out of their beds, went downstairs and left their houses, running off into the night. The next day we see an empty classroom with just their teacher Justine, and Alex, the only child not affected.

The opening section of the film is told from Justine’s perspective as angry parents demand answers and point the finger at her. She locks herself away with a bottle of vodka to escape the anonymous threatening phone calls and wakes up to find her car vandalised with the word WITCH daubed in red paint on the side. Is she really the nice, young liberal teacher that she seems?

The film then proceeds to show events from the different perspectives of people involved- a grieving father, a local cop, the head teacher of the school, a homeless person and finally the child Alex, as the truth is slowly unveiled. 

This is a horror film built around a mystery that keeps you guessing until the final act, with the Rashomon style structure working well, with overlapping timelines and viewpoints. There are a couple of jump scares but the film doesn’t rely on them to build tension and the conclusion is a satisfyingly gruesome one. There is some humour too (can we say Naruto running here), that undercuts the horror just enough so that the atmosphere isn't completely grim - without getting into spoiler territory the premise is one that could easily have gone to some very dark places.