Finally saw Weapons [SPOILERS]

Conan basing his opening Oscars skit around *Weapons* was finally enough to make me sit down and make time to watch it, and boy, am I glad I did. **SPOILERS FOLLOW** There has been a lot of discussion on this sub lately about films that take a hard right turn on their genre about halfway through the movie, largely thanks to *Sinners* also appearing this past year. While it's horror through and through, I feel that *Weapons* opening exposition makes you feel like this is a crime movie, or a government conspiracy film, or maybe zombies even? But no: it's a witch. A genuine, and \*really\* mean witch. And the film even winks and nods at us a couple of times to our own obliviousness. Including giving the twist away early when Archer literally writes "WITCH" on Justine's car. (the second being the assault rifle with "2:17" on the ammo counter – a literal weapon – in Archer's dream). Amy Madigan's performance ranges from quirky and weird to utterly bone-chilling. The Oscar is so well-deserved. There has been a lot – so, SO much – in fiction in the past several decades about nice witches; witches as a metaphor for female empowerment. That has good utility: as a lot of the legends about witches were probably tools used to keep women under control and in line. But it's also left me thirsting for a truly evil, outright sociopathic witch character; something I didn't realize until just now. It's offset by Justine. Who, despite her (deep) flaws, is in fact the one person who cares about Alex. As someone in one of the older threads pointed out, if anyone had just listened to her early on, the case would have been cracked open much earlier. As the child narrator says, law enforcement failed embarrassingly. Nevertheless, Justine's care for Alex – as seen in the flashbacks – is genuine, and pure. Alex is great. Him collecting all the student-made cubby nametags, with the handwritten name and art, is such a genius way of fulfilling Gladys' request all in one go. And in the end, understanding her methods by being attentive, he is the one who beats her at her own game. Again, another listnookor described Glady's **forcible dismemberment** as one of the most satisfying villain deaths they'd seen in years, and I couldn't agree more. Her terror when she hears the unearthly DING of Alex retargeting the weapon kids against her was delightful: "OH NO." I think satisfying endings are important, even if they aren't happy or don't explain everything. *Weapons* nailed it. That's it! What did you think?