Warning: Major spoilers for Weapons
After therunaway box office successof Zach Cregger’s mystery horrorWeapons,a prequel is already being consideredthat would provide backstory for the movie’s most mysterious character, Aunt Gladys. However, exploring that character would actually be a huge mistake given the retroactive impact it would have onWeapons.
Cregger’s thought-provoking,surprisingly funny horror hitis loaded with powerful images and memorable characters, which is why it’s been almost universally well-received by both critics and audiences. Without a doubt, the most unforgettable character inWeaponswas Amy Madigan’s eccentric and enigmatic Aunt Gladys, the cause behind the mysterious disappearances andupsettingly gruesome deaths.
While an early draft ofWeaponsincluded a dedicated character perspective for Gladys, as there were for six other characters during the movie, it was dropped very early on in the process. The origin story that Cregger originally intended for Gladys may now be fully fleshed out into a prequel, but it could be a disastrous decision forWeapons' franchise prospects.
Exploring Gladys' Backstory Takes Away From What Makes Her A Great Horror Villain
Leading up to the release ofWeapons, Zach Cregger spoke withGizmodoabout what his Gladys chapter would have looked like:
In an earlier draft of the script I had given her her own chapter…It was a little bit of an origin before she came to town. But I realized that it was just giving too much away. It’s more compelling to not know some of these things. So I ended up cutting it very early on in the writing process.
By Cregger’s own admission, he thought that keeping Gladys' past a mystery was more compelling, and that certainly played out in the final cut of the movie. Gladys was almost entirely omitted from the movie’s marketing, so when she finally did appear in the movie, haunting character dreams and the woods before her formal introduction as Alex’s aunt, she was beyond intriguing.
Some of the most intimidating villains, particularly in horror movies, are never given a backstory, and in most cases that enhances their scariness/creepiness. Why does Michael Myers driven to relentlessly and brutally murder people, including his own family members? What makes Art the Clown torture and dismember people seemingly at random? We aren’t told why, and that’s what makes them scary.
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The same follows for Aunt Gladys. The audience can infer that she is some type of witch, capable of possessing others, and based on context clues we understand that she wants the children of Maybrook so that she can drain their life force away to rejuvenate herself and extend her already-unnaturally-long life. But that’s about where the answers end;we aren’t even sure that she’s Alex’s great aunt.
While Gladys is no doubt a compelling character, exploring her origin in a full movie will completely undermine the mystique and terror that she inspires inWeapons. I have faith that Zach Cregger can craft an entertaining, scary narrative around Gladys’s origin, but I don’t think it’s necessary, and could retroactively damage the impact ofWeapons.
