The inciting incident that kicks off the story in writer/director Zach Cregger’s new horror movie Weapons is incredibly freaky all by itself: in a small town, 17 children wake from their beds simultaneously, leave their homes, and flee into the night. But it’s not just the event itself that is scary, but also the way it happens. The kids don’t just stroll away from their houses but instead sprint at full tilt with their arms angled straight out at their sides. It’s a seriously creepy image that has been used very effectively in the marketing – and it even successfully sends a chill down the spine of star Josh Brolin.
Knowing how the proverbial sausage is made certainly takes some of the edge off of scary movies for the actors who make them, but the case of the eerie arm positioning in Weapons is kind of a special case for Brolin. When I spoke with him late last month during the Los Angeles press day for the movie (as captured in the video above), I brought up the subject of the special physicality, and the actor explained that he made a point of not wanting to know the “why” of it all. On set, he wasn’t sure if it would work on screen, but he now recognizes that it definitely does.
