Major spoilers for "Weapons" follow.
Zach Cregger's "Weapons" is a critical and financial hit, and for good reason: it's pretty damn great. Cregger's scary, funny portrait of several characters in a small town butting up against mystery and the supernatural had a fantastic marketing campaign that kept most of its twists and turns a secret. The trailers only gave away the basic premise: at 2:17 AM, 17 kids from the same grade school classroom left their house, ran out into the darkness of their suburban
neighborhood, and vanished. It's an intriguing set-up, and a big chunk of "Weapons" is devoted to several characters grappling with the fallout of such an inexplicable event.
Eventually, the film provides an answer as to what the heck is going on here. A witch has cast some sort of dark spell to draw all the missing children to her so she can essentially suck out their energy in order to stay young and alive. Cregger wisely keeps the specifics shrouded in the unexplained — we don't really know how the witch's magic works, and we don't really need to.
The witch, named Gladys, is played by the great Amy Madigan, and Madigan's presence has been mostly left out of the marketing (you can catch quick glimpses of her here and there in the trailers). I understand why they've held back Madigan from promotional material, but now that "Weapons" is in theaters and drawing crowds, I want to put forth a potentially far-out idea: Warner Bros. should push Amy Madigan for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
Read more: The 12 Worst Best Picture Oscar Winners Of All Time
Amy Madigan Gives The Best Performance In Weapons
Madigan's Gladys, or Aunt Gladys as she's known to young Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the only kid from the class who didn't disappear, is the film's villain, and the character is thoroughly scary and detestable. Sporting garish makeup and colorful clothing, she sticks out like a sore thumb and makes any situation awkward and weird. She also has the ability to bend people to her will. Not only has she abducted these kids, but she also has Alex's poor parents under her spell, and in one of the most upsetting scenes in the film, she forces Alex to watch as she makes his parents stab themselves in the face, repeatedly, with forks. She's trying to prove a point: she can do whatever she wants to Alex's parents, and she will, unless he's willing to follow her rules and keep her dark secrets.
Madigan's work in the role is delightfully twisted — she hits all the right notes to make Gladys a supremely scary movie monster. But perhaps even more interesting are the nuanced touches of humanity Madigan brings to the role. Gladys is sick and dying (it's not clear how old she is, but at one point, she lies and says that Alex's parent have "consumption," indicating she's pretty damn old and doesn't realize people don't really come down with that disease anymore). At one point in the film, Alex spots Gladys laying on the floor of a bedroom, sickly and wasted away, her wig removed, her body shriveled. She looks very tired and very weak, and offers a sort of explanation as to why she's doing what she's doing: she wants to get better.
This is, of course, a selfish desire — she's willing to hurt and even kill people if it means she can live a little longer. But Madigan is so good here that she manages to make Gladys almost seem sympathetic in this moment. We can't condone what she's doing, but we understand why she's doing it. I wouldn't call Madigan's performance "subtle" exactly, but she manages to make her villain more layered than you might expect. At the same time, we also hate how wicked this witch so, and we relish the film's hilariously violent grand finale in which the missing kids revolt, chase Gladys down, and literally rip her apart.
There's Precedent For A Best Supporting Actress Nomination For A Horror Movie
I'm not really much of an awards pundit. I often find the Oscars frustrating and even kind of boring, and I think the politicking that goes along with the process is gross and turns the art of movies into a sporting event. At the same time, I would love if the Academy gave Madigan some recognition. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress once before, in 1986 for "Twice in a Lifetime," so the case can be made that as a seasoned pro, she's long overdue for another nod.
"I've always been a huge fan of hers, and I just know that she can do anything," director Zach Cregger told me about Madigan. "You watch her in 'Field of Dreams' and she's this firecracker and totally bouncy and just really funny. And then you watch her and 'Gone Baby Gone,' and she's just heavy. And then you watch her in 'Carnivale,' and she's intimidating. So I was just like, 'She can excel at everything I need this character to excel in.'" Gladys is a big, loud villain, but Madigan finds a way to bring things to the role that a lesser performer might miss. Her screen time isn't huge, but she makes every second of it count. It's the type of stand-out performance that deserves awards attention. Last year, many people were clamoring for Nicolas Cage's gonzo turn in "Longlegs" to earn a nomination. It ultimately didn't, but if Cage can get a push, why not Amy Madigan?
True, the Oscars don't have the best track record when it comes to horror (last year's nominations for "The Substance" were considered a big change up for the horror genre). But there is some precedent here: Ruth Gordon was nominated for — and won! — the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her memorable turn as smiling Satanist Minnie Castevet in "Rosemary's Baby," and Madigan's performance often feels like it's channeling the highly memorable character work Gordon did in that horror classic. So if you're listening, Academy, do the right thing: send Aunt Gladys to the Oscars.
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