How The Girlfriend on Prime Video (like Weapons) turns perspective into empathy

Weapons fans may have noticed a similar storytelling tool in Amazon Prime Video's The Girlfriend. While many thrillers enjoy a good twist, the way stories are told these days is the absolute delight.

Consider Zach Cregger's Weapons, Barbarian's sequel. At first glance, schoolchildren's mass vanishing looks like a typical horror movie. Yet, you discover something more human and scary when you go deeper. As the story is revealed in chapters (each presented through the eyes of a different character), you have to rewatch the same nightmare from conflicting perspectives.

Now watch The Girlfriend, featuring Robin Wright and Olivia Cooke. Although it isn't a horror, it uses the same narrative tool. We find ourselves caught between two opposing POVs (Laura, the overprotective mother with her own issues, and Cherry, the oddly charming newcomer) rather than only seeing the collapse of a toxic relationship. By the end, you're worn out from feeling both sides, and you can't even begin to choose a side.

Carefully crafted coincidences can make conflict become empathy, so read on to know how empathy is extorted by the use of different perspectives.

Both horror and heartbreak need shifting POVs

Children disappearing at 2:17 AM creates a spooky atmosphere in Weapons, building into an overwhelming sadness and horror.

You first sit with Justine, Julia Garner's teacher, whose whole class vanishes in a single second. As a father, you must live with Josh Brolin's anger. Then the quiet boy, the person with a substance use disorder, and the cop walked off. Every point of view both softens and heightens the mystery.

The Girlfriend uses the same strategy. Although Cherry's lies are blatant to the audience, Daniel's mother, Laura, turns them into manipulative devices. When you switch to Cherry's perspective, you see a vulnerable girl struggling to make it into a life she doesn't have. Your sympathies are complicated because neither version dismisses the other; instead, they overlap!

This is a fictional version of the Pied Piper effect: who do you follow and at what cost? Weapons and The Girlfriend both steer clear of offering you an easy villain by switching points of view. Instead, they force you to sit in the discomfort of bad decisions, where everyone is correct and incorrect.

Empathy is the plot twist in The Girlfriend and Weapons

The interesting aspect is that perspective serves as the personal hook. Cherry would have been a stereotypical "crazy girlfriend" character in The Girlfriend if Laura hadn't been driven crazy by her grief for Rose and Lilith.

The missing kids in Weapons would be another horror cliché if Justine hadn't been guilty! What's worse than a jump scare on Weapons? Realizing that you may be holding onto someone for the wrong reasons.

What could be more fatal than a toxic romance on The Girlfriend? Noticing that unresolved grief often allows abuse to take root.

Both works show that empathy is the most satisfying and scary twist. By the time you're done, you're involved. You have felt the pull of fear, the need to defend, and the urge to lie. That mirror goes way beyond telling a good story.

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Watch The Girlfriend on Prime Video.

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