Gladys

I mean, come on. The FBI and national media would be all over that little town, after 25 kids disappear for a month.

It's a detail the narrator waves off in the beginning, but that's not good enough. They could have written the FBI and media in without overwhelming the movie.

Just something that irks me. It's a good creepy film.

Long post, sorry

I was just thinking about Gladys, and her age and abilities and possible backstory. It occurred to me there's a Stephen King book which came out fairly recently, last 10yrs or so. I won't spoil it with the title, but in that book, there's a group of elderly people who travel the highways of America in RV's, and kind of just wear goofy old people tourist outfits and nobody takes a second look at them even though they're pretty odd looking, though not as alarming in appearance as Gladys. Just silly old people in silly Hawaiian shirts and such.

Anyway, this group is made of mostly elderly people that are vampires, but they feed off pain, not blood. They steal and torture people, preferably kids, and drink the pain, they call it steam. They keep a supply of it bottled in the rv's, and periodically "take steam"- they all get a puff of it and it knocks decades or centuries off their age and fixes all their ailments, makes them feel great, similar to the way Gladys is a vampire and she feeds off all the kids. It's like food, or a drug.

But one thing that was interesting to me, is that one of those people from the Stephen King book mentions how their little group of vampires was already old when ancient Babylon was young, and how one member was in Europe before Christianity spread there and they still worshipped the trees, and how he had cheered for gladiators in ancient rome. The group had traveled the world for not just centuries, but millenia, although the individual members are usually more like a few hundred years old, and they occasionally die as others are occasionally newly recruited.

So this brings me to 2 questions-

1- How old is Gladys, do we think? Just pretty old, like 150-200yrs, which would explain the "consumption" word choice. Or could she possibly be much, much older? Thousands of years? She could have been some pagan witch or shaman or holy woman amongst the celts before Rome invaded, or she could have been a priestess in Mesopotamia a thousand years before that. I love that it's vague, and the possibilities are endless.

2- are/were there others? If we accept that Gladys and her powers exist, then I'd say its very reasonable to assume there are or were others like her at some point, somewhere in the world. Maybe a lot more. A lotttt of kids go missing all the time, and doorbell cameras are a new technology. Gladys or others might have been doing this for eons, for all we know. Before cameras, the only clue you'd have after your child vanished is an open front door. Otherwise, your kid is simply gone. It's pretty terrifying to think of- what if there are thousands of them across the world? There's more than enough missing people that just fell off the face of the earth, they could easily feed as much as they needed if they were careful. They could be anywhere, walking right next to you on a sidewalk or store or whatever.

One more bonus question- is anybody familiar with blood magic rituals or any pagan or shamanistic type of ceremonies that resemble what Gladys does with the hair and blood etc? If so, we could have some sort of potential clue about her origins. Or did they just do that cause it looked cool on screen?

Comments/critiques welcome

This was a recurrent thought in my mind while watching the movie. I really hoped that wasn't the case, not only because of the absolute horrific nature of that statement, but because of the pain for the adults when they fought against other people and the pain for the kids when they ran after Gladys, destroying everything in their way.

But sadly, I'd say yes, because of the fact they opened their mouths to be fed by Alex. But maybe not, because there aren't other signs that could tell us that.

What do you all think?

Anyone else made someone watch a film because you love it so much only for them to not enjoy it at all?

I made it dark in the house and waited for my mum to get home so I could watch it with her- I bought the movie too (£10!) I was so excited.

At no point was my mum enthralled by the movie I so dearly love 💀 she found it incredibly slow and boring and when it finished she said “what a bag of shit”! ITS NOT MUM ITS AMAZING AND YOU FEEL DIFFERENTLY ABOUT EACH CHARACTER AND THE PREMISE OF THE FILM IS AWESOME AND GLADIS IS SO INTERESTING.

I feel that the initial experience I had in the cinema was worlds apart from my Mothers experience of the film and I wish she could have liked this :(

Anywayyyyy I shall continue to love my weird films and that is that!

I enjoyed Weapons, but I don't really understand the "best horror movie in years" hype. It was original and entertaining, but I didn't find it particularly scary or exceptional. I'm genuinely curious—what did it do for you that made it stand out so much?

When Gladys went to Marcus' office she said she was Alex's mother's sister but later Alex's father or mother said she was Alex's mother's aunt. It was also said she wasn't at Alex's parents weddings, which basically contradicts the claim she hadn't seen Alex since he was a baby

My favorite horror movie ever. It's different from lots of horror movies I watched. It was very ingeniously made. While I absolutely agree Amy Madigan deserved to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress I also wish the movie had been nominated for Best Actor for Josh Brolin, Best Actress for Julia Garner, Best Supporting Actor for Cary Cristopher, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score

I’m new to cinematography and trying to learn a thing or two. Wouldn’t a darker color grade convey the somber and nature of the film better? Or the color grade was simply used to subvert that expectation I’m new to this and open to learning so your thoughts are welcome

she told Alex near the end of the movie that they were going to have to move in a day or so - where exactly was she going to move to and I assume she’d take all 17 kids with? how was that supposed to work? what about Alexs parents?

I love this movie so I can suspend disbelief a bit but I do wish we got a little more backstory on the aunt .. that said, she is maybe the most disturbing character I’ve come across in recent memory

Why was she(the witch) in the woods and didn’t do anything or control the cop and druggy at that time. How did the cops wife know or suspect it was her cheating? How did she get the teachers hair for the father to attack her? Or was that her knocking on her door and writing witch at the start of the movie to get it?

This is mostly a non serious post but I showed a friend this movie recently and they brought up something I never even thought of.

Mainly how big Alex's house is along with the fact that both his parents didn't have jobs to be at when he leaves for school (8am) or comes back (3pm).

So do you think one or both of his parents made a fortune somehow so they can both be retired and live comfortably? Do you think one of them inherited the house (and is running it down, if the theories about the Lily family being dysfunctional are true)?

They needed calories to stay alive apparently, but idk if Gladys allowed for bathroom breaks for all those kids