Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Zach Cregger, ‘Weapons’ is a psychological horror film that chronicles the inexplicable disappearance of a group of students from the same classroom. The sole clue to this enigma lies in the hands of the one student who didn’t disappear, Alex Lilly. Soon, the class teacher, Justine Gandy’s life starts to fall into disarray, and she realizes that she must take matters into her own hands for the greater good. However, the town holds many secrets, and as they begin to come to light, she quickly finds out that there are greater powers working against her. The entire community comes together in the process of unravelling this mystery, not knowing that all of their lives are at risk. The town of Maybrook takes center stage in this story, with all of its intricacies coming together to shed light on the darker underbelly of the human psyche.
Maybrook is a Fictional Town With Ambiguous Origins
While Maybrook serves as the setting for the entire narrative of ‘Weapons,’ the town itself is fictional in nature, penned by the creative team led by Zach Cregger. An equally important contributor to the place’s invention is lead production designer Tom Hammock, who was instructed by the director to construct a small, New Eastern Town as the backdrop. As such, Hammock’s pool of inspirations reportedly included cities such as Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. A through line between all these places is their quaint atmosphere and emphasis on community, which finds parallels within the movie’s rendition as well. In a conversation with Timeout, Hammock said: “[Zach] wanted everything to appear as normal as possible. He wanted the audience to buy into this town as being the most normal place in the world.”
The town of Maybrook is brought to life in equal parts by the creative vision and the location of its filming. To that end, the crew set camp in Georgia, making use of its urban and natural landscapes to bring the best out of each scene. In particular, the production was based in Atlanta and extended to Decatur, East Point, Griffin, Jonesboro, and Stone Mountain. The crew took to the city of Tucker to film the school sequences at Brockett Elementary School, situated on 1855 Brockett Road. Some portions were also filmed in Covington, adding to the movie’s visual identity. While a number of locations are mashed together to construct Maybrook, it retains a core visual identity that is in line with the demands of the script. In doing so, it extracts some traits from all of its shooting locations in order to embody the movie’s themes. The transition from normalcy to chaos and eventual horror is mapped here from start to finish, through the twists and turns that directly affect the town and its legacy.
Notably, Maybrook shares its name with a real village in Orange County, New York. Although the place’s close-knit nature and environmental palette vaguely overlap with the locations featured in the movie, this connection is likely coincidental in nature, as no official confirmation has been provided. Some visual details scattered throughout the movie strongly suggest that the town lies in Pennsylvania, owing to the car number plates frequently showing the state code, PA. In addition, the vehicles often do not have a license plate at the front, and only in the back, which aligns with Pennsylvania law as of writing. However, with no direct connection between the state and the town established within the story, these points of commonality remain speculative to a certain extent.
Maybrook is Brought to Life by Various Creative Methods
Although Maybrook is a fictional town, the team behind ‘Weapons’ has gone above and beyond to infuse it with an air of realism. The most innovative step in that regard is the creation of a website called Maybrook News. This site keeps track of the cases of missing children, treating them as real cases to keep up with the immersion factor. A closer inspection of the website, however, leads to more clues about the possible location of the town. The bottom of the page contains an icon that leads to the official Georgia Department of Economic Development website, further cementing Maybrook’s ties to the state. One of the fictional news articles describes an underground basement that was found at a property in Brightmoor, Detroit. This brings up the possibility that Maybrook is based in Michigan, as that would explain why the site reports news from around that region. However, neither of these clues is conclusive, and the true location of the city is likely intentionally obscured.
The town of Maybrook is introduced into the narrative as a town full of happy, normal families, but the arrival of malicious forces gradually begins to warp its true nature. To that end, the town’s identity is vague enough to suggest that it stands in as a seemingly unremarkable backdrop. This idea is then flipped over its head as the events unfold, and one by one, every element of the town begins to appear suspicious. This is embodied by the fate that is endured by many characters, all of which represent a larger system that they take part in creating. In the end, the disappearance serves as a springboard that prompts questions about the truth of the town itself, channeling both paranoia and curiosity in one breath.
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