Bored with what’s on Netflix? Josh Brolin says go see “Weapons.”
In a recent interview with Collider, Brolin, who stars in Zach Cregger‘s latest twisty horror, said “Weapons” is the antithesis of “boring” streaming content, bringing the horror genre to “the edge of absurdity” to create something entirely unique.
“You’re looking for great filmmakers, and you’re hoping that there’s another new good filmmaker out there,” Brolin said. “Right now, with so much content, you’re just watching things on whatever streaming service you’re on, and you’re just going, ‘Fuck, why is this so boring, man? Why?’ And just go to the next thing. It’s all the same shit. And then somebody not only takes the horror genre, but then fucks with it and then does something on the edge of absurdity, and it’s sort of humorous, so it’s keeping you off-[balance] enough for him to have an emotional impact.”
Brolin said he “really liked” Cregger’s previous film, “Barbarian,” but couldn’t pinpoint why at the time of its release. He explained that he consulted his daughter and his son-in-law for a younger perspective on Cregger’s filmmaking.
“You talk to that era of people, and, I mean, he’s like a god to them,” he added. “And I’m like, okay, so they’re reacting to something that I may not understand. I would rather not understand it and do business with that guy and understand it better later. And I think that ‘Weapons’ is a much more refined version of something that he had his finger on the pulse of with ‘Barbarian.’”
Brolin stars in “Weapons” alongside Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan. The film follows a small town enveloped in chaos after 17 children mysteriously go missing on the same night.
In his Variety interview, Cregger discussed how he wrote the film to cope with the death of someone close to him and how he used his characters as an outlet for his grief.
“It’s just given me an opportunity to engage with those feelings in a healthy, constructive way,” Cregger said. “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.”