SPOILER ALERT: This article contains minor spoilers about “Weapons,” now playing in theaters.
Director Zach Cregger‘s sophomore feature, “Weapons,” is a story about a small town overtaken by a malevolent force. One night, all of the kids from a specific classroom run away, and the townspeople become increasingly furious that the police have no leads. The narrative follows several locals — including troubled teacher Justine (Julia Garner), whose class went missing; Paul, a cop (Alden Ehrenreich); Archer (Josh Brolin), whose son is one of the missing kids; and a young burglar (Austin Abrams) — as they get pulled into the central mystery.
Although he was unable to talk about any specific spoilers at the end of the film, Cregger broke down many key elements in “Weapons,” Including the film’s use of humor, gore and that surreal moment with the floating assault weapon.
You’ve cited Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia” as an inspiration for some of the structure and ideas in the film. When did you first realize that you wanted “Weapons” to have a similarly unconventional story construction?
I think the idea for the structure came very early on. I knew once I got out of the cold open and started with Justine that she was not going to be the only perspective of this story. I was pretty instantly excited about the idea of having a novelistic structure where we follow different protagonists, but I wanted to set a rule for myself that I would never go back. Once I moved on, their chapter was done. If I could hold fast to that, the movie would be better for it, and it was not an easy thing for me to do, but for better or worse, I committed to that structure. And that’s not really the structure that “Magnolia” follows.
“Magnolia” is more of a reference point for me because of the scale and the tone of it. And John C. Reilly’s mustache is in my movie on Alden’s face. Honestly, there’s something about the John C. Reilly stuff where he loses the gun and he’s searching for it in the rain that felt like a North Star. Just the vibe of that, I want to live in that, so I wanted to write a movie that feels like it’s moving in that direction.
You’ve said writing the script was a way to deal with the grief after a person close to you passed away. Now that the film is complete, do you feel like this process gave you some closure or the answers you were searching for?
No. I mean, it doesn’t work that way. Somebody dies, and you’re gonna feel that absence for the rest of your life. Maybe the sting can kind of lessen, but I don’t know if that’s time or community or what. I don’t think making this movie has exorcised any demons. It’s just given me an opportunity to engage with those feelings in a healthy, constructive way. Rather than going and drinking myself to death, I’m able to write a character that drinks herself into a problem. I can take my anger and have Josh Brolin freak out, and that’s better than me freaking out.
There’s a surreal moment in the movie where Archer has a dream and sees a giant assault weapon floating over a house. Would you be able to speak about what that moment means to you?
I don’t know. It’s a very important moment for me in this movie, and to be frank with you, I think what I love about it so much is that I don’t understand it. I have a few different ideas of what it might be there for, but I don’t have the right answer. I like the idea that everyone is probably going to have their own kind of interaction or their own relationship with that scene, whether they don’t give a shit about it and it’s boring, or whether they think it’s some sort of political statement, or whether they think it’s just cool. I don’t really care. It’s not up to me. I just like that it’s there.
You come from a comedy background, and while much of this film is played straight, there are some darkly comedic moments. How are you able to find the beats where humor makes sense to correctly tell the story?
You have to just let them come organically to the situation that you’re writing and not try to inject anything funny into the movie. There are a couple of jokes I wrote into the movie where I thought I was being clever, and they’re all on the cutting room floor. The rule I’ve learned for myself is to let the situation dictate the humor. Let the movie ask me for the humor, don’t try to put it in. Be in service of the story, don’t try to be clever.
There’s some very grisly violence in this movie. Did you have to trim anything as a result of the studio or the ratings board?
I got everything. I mean, it’s not that grisly. I guess I could thank “Terrifier 3” for coming out and totally raping everybody’s eyes so that anything I’m going to do is going to feel PG.
There were a lot of smooshed heads.
Yeah, but I’m still working on that because I tried it in “Barbarian” and I didn’t get it right, and I’m trying it in “Weapons.” I didn’t quite get it, but one day I’m going to get that “Irreversible” fire extinguisher head smash. That’s my white whale. I’ve got to try it again.
David Fincher is thanked in the end credits. How did he help you with the film?
He’s just a very helpful guy. He was available to me during prep, and then he was very available during the post process. He watched the movie and had a lot of really constructive thoughts and gave me a ton of ideas. He helped me learn more about the editing process and how to think about it in a new way that wasn’t available to me when I was making “Barbarian.” So he just opened my mind up a lot.
In what ways specifically?
There are things I thought I had to just settle for. I thought, “Well, that’s the take I have. That’s the best take. And it’s not perfect, but by God, nothing is.” Dave’s attitude is, “It can always be better, and there are a lot of tools that you have at your disposal that you might not be thinking about.” So, from reframing to stabilization to ADR to all sorts of things, it was really cool. Honestly, I learned a lot about how to prep, what lenses to use. I shot this mostly anamorphic, and I didn’t quite respect how limiting anamorphic is in the post process. So stuff like that, technical stuff.
There are so many performances in the film that walk tricky tonal tightropes. How did you know that your key players would be the perfect people to be on the same wavelength as this film?
I’ve seen their work, so I know what tones they can take. I know Josh can be really funny and really serious — I’ve seen “No Country for Old Men,” and I’ve seen “Hail, Caesar!” I know what he can do. Julia in “The Assistant” … I watched that and thought, “This is what I need. This is amazing.” She’s amazing, but that movie tipped the scales for me. Alden, I’ve been a massive fan since I saw “Hail, Caesar!” Austin Abrams is a miracle, and I woke up to him when I saw “Brad’s Status,” which is a Mike White movie that he was in. I was like, “Who is this kid that has total courage in this movie, and he does nothing, and it just rocks?” And then Amy Madigan, I’m a huge fan. I got to collect people that I’ve always loved watching.
Could you see yourself working on another story set in this world?
Definitely. I’ve actually … it’s funny you asked that. I can’t help it: I have another idea for something in this world that I’m kind of excited about. I’m not going to do it next, and I probably won’t do it after my next movie, but I do have one and I’d like to see it on the screen one day.
I know you’re directing the upcoming “Resident Evil” movie, and you’re a big fan of the games. What are you hoping to bring to the cinematic experience that fellow fans will be excited about?
Those games pioneered something special. The pacing of those games is so unique and effective, and just being locked in with one character moving from point A to point B, knowing you’re going to pass through this gauntlet of terror, and you’ve got to be methodical and thoughtful about it. That’s cool. That’s cinematic. So I want to tell the story in the world of the games that honors the lore of the games, but it’s a new story.
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