Weapons

After a point, though, it all starts feeling empty: monsters without motives are no longer interesting, and the big reveal takes away the much-needed suspense. Where initially you couldn't move from the edge of your seat, the bloody fallout leaves you underwhelmed.

A hugely accomplished horror achievement, and a significant step up from Barbarian: tense, sad, hilarious, unsettling, ridiculously entertaining, and ultimately oddly uplifting.

Weapons is a righteous, fully actualized genre-bender in which writer-director Zach Cregger hones Barbarian’s blend of unbearable tension and dark humor to a new level of razor-sharpness.

It's not every day that a film reminds you of Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" and George A. Romero's "The Crazies" but Zach Cregger doesn't make everyday movies.

It all makes for a winning watch, with more layers than your average scare fest and a twinkle in its evil eye.

"Weapons" is his sophomore effort and it's more ambitious than his first, "Barbarian." But it often lags and slackens on its way to a gruesome end, with a reliance on sorcery that seems like a cop-out. If "Barbarian" came out of left field three years ago and heralded an exciting new voice in filmmaking, "Weapons" doesn't disappoint but it doesn't have the advantage of surprise.