Weapons: Why do the children run like that in the horror movie? Possible reasons explored

Weapons opens in a way that just makes you feel like something’s not right. Even before you meet the town properly, the missing kids, or any of the spells. You just know you’re in for something weird and unsettling.

By the time everything starts, kids gone at 2:17 a.m., a creeping witch in the shadows with her spells, you’re already leaning forward and waiting. That early scare is enough to make you realize that this movie has already crept under your skin even before you know it. You’re already a part of that small town with the haunting mystery of missing children.

One of the most curious parts of Weapons is those children and the way they run. In this article, we'll try to figure out why they run the way they do.

Disclaimer: The article reflects the author's opinions. Reader discretion is advised.

Weapons: Why do the children run like that in the movie?

Weapons (Image via New Line Cinema/ Warner Bros.)

Weapons doesn’t need jump scares every five seconds to creep you out. Sometimes it’s the little details that get under your skin. And in this case, it’s the way the kids run. The witch, Gladys, is the one pulling the strings. She’s haunting this quiet town.

She comes in as Alex's frail old aunt. She is balding, thin, and looks like she’s barely hanging on to life. But the scary part is what follows.

Gladys wastes no time taking over Alex's parents. She uses them like puppets to get what she wants. And what she wants is for Alex to bring her belongings from his classmates. And he doesn't want to do it in the beginning but then eventually agrees because Gladys has his parents in her grip, and he’s desperate to stop her from hurting them even more.

The real nightmare in Weapons starts after she gets her hands on those children's belongings. Gladys begins her ritual, and suddenly, in the dead of night, at exactly 2:17 a.m., the children start running out of their houses, onto the streets.

Now, “running” doesn’t even feel like the right word here. It looks like they’re being dragged by something invisible. Their heads and chests (heart, mind, and soul) are being pulled forward by Gladys’s magic, and their arms are flung back behind them.

They don't even know they are running because it's Gladys who has put them under her spell and is reeling them in like fish on a line, straight toward Alex's house. And that image of the kids moving in that unnatural way is already enough to make your skin crawl without any jump scare.

Director Cregger revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the unsettling movement in Weapons came from a very real and haunting place in his memory. It was inspired by the famous photograph of the “Napalm Girl” from the Vietnam War. She was a young Vietnamese girl running down a road with her arms out after being burned by napalm.

Cregger said:

"I think that image is so awful, and the way she's holding her arms out just killed me. I think there's something really upsetting about that posture. If I had to guess, that might be where the seed is from. I don't know. But there was no second-guessing that pose. I knew that they would run that way."

Now, if that is the case, the way he channels that into Weapons makes the kids’ run even more disturbing. It’s not only creepy but also rooted in real human horror, and those are the kind of things that keep you up at night.