I was loving the film Weapons right up until Aunt Gladys forcefully enters and takes over the narrative. (She is presented subtly earlier in the film.) Aunt Gladys is played in a delightfully over-the-top fashion by Amy Madigan in an Oscar-winning performance. It’s not her performance that turned the film into a wrong direction, but the character and the narrative path things took after a strong start.

The film opens with one of those “why is this happening?” events that sets everything in motion—no spoiler alerts here. The mood is horror, but elegant horror. The camerawork is lovely and engaging in the most suspenseful way, and the jump scares are always felt to just around the corner but are surprisingly spare. The sense of fearful anticipation builds beautifully, and we are set up for one of the better horror films in recent years.

There are a few gruesome moments before Gladys takes ownership of the film, but they are laid discreetly into the ever-growing sense of dread of what might still be to come and the desire to see the many disparate people and actions come into a coherent focus. Then the film transforms into a grisly and disturbingly violent piece of well-executed schlock. After such a smart, even stylish beginning, the last act was a let-down. Of course, a film with such an intriguing premise had to end up going somewhere, but the descent from delightful and entrancing confusion to gore was a let-down.

Generally speaking, the performances, with the slight exception of Julia Garner, were solid. Big-eyed main child actor Cary Christopher takes much of his performance from Haley Joel Osmont in The Sixth Sense, and the choices are good ones. Of course, the boldest and most colorful was Madigan’s as Aunt Gladys, and she owns every scene she’s in. Her Oscar may have partly been a career award, but it’s hard to argue with a performance that is so out there and yet so precise at the same time.

Aside from the expert camerawork, the editing and structure of the film were its other strong points. It’s not easy to shift around characters and timelines with ease, but Weapons manages that, and it’s never confusing.

For those who love dissecting films sociologically and politically, there is plenty to work with here. And with its many options for interpretations, it may well function in the future as a kind of cinematic Rorschach test. But his is not primarily a message film, but an attempt to make the best horror film of the year. If only the culmination were half as rewarding as its opening and first two-thirds of the film….