“Weapons” is essentially a mystery, and a good one, if conventional. In a clever move, Cregger divides the film into discrete chapters, each labelled with the name of the character at its center. To show events from different points of view, time frequently rewinds, revealing intersecting moments in the characters’ lives. Coincidences mount up, creating a tension-filled labyrinth that emphasizes the inescapable role that serendipity plays in the rational, deductive process of investigating. Yet Cregger’s storytelling is slick and textureless, featuring characters whose personalities are reduced to their plot functions and a town that has no characteristics beyond its response to calamity. In order to stoke shocks early on, when the action is still mundanely procedural, Cregger shows characters’ nightmares. Later, once a series of gory doings propels matters into prime horror territory, the movie takes an altogether different path, a supernatural one.journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter