With the recent release and critical acclaim of Weapons, writer/director Zach Cregger has proven that the success of Barbarian wasn’t a fluke or the result of the planets being aligned in just the right way. In the vein of Jordan Peele, Cregger has proven that he’s one of the best new horror directors to look out for with his screenwriting talent, a good eye with a camera, and the ability to build tension. Let’s talk about one of his lesser movies.
Reviews and articles online keep declaring Weapons as his sophomore film, but it’s actually the third movie he’s ever directed. Back in 2009, with fellow Whitest Kids U’Know alum Trevor Moore, Cregger co-wrote and co-directed the gross-out sex comedy Miss March.
If you haven’t seen Miss March, the story follows Eugene (Cregger), who, after an accident at a high school party, ends up falling into a four-year coma only to wake up to find out that his high school sweetheart, Cindi (Raquel Alessi), is now a centerfold Playboy model. He then goes—against his will—on a road trip with his best friend Tucker (Moore) to reunite with her. Considering this is a road trip movie, you can expect there to be no hijinks to ensue or wacky characters to meet along the way.
Miss March didn’t do well in the box office and currently holds a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes—which is still 2% better than the recent War of the Worlds movie—and while it’s not a great movie or even that funny of a comedy, it’s unique just for the night-and-day comparison of how Cregger grew as a filmmaker.
As stated earlier, one of his strengths is the technical aspect of his films. As a solo filmmaker, he came out of the gates swinging with Barbarian, with cinematography that he’s gone on record stating was inspired by both David Fincher and Sam Raimi films. Those are two drastically different styles that shouldn’t blend at all, but he did it expertly with cinematographer Zach Kuperstein.
Weapons also looks great—when you can see what’s happening—and, again, feels very Fincher-esque. By comparison, Miss March feels very point-and-shoot and visually flat, bearing more of a resemblance to Whitest Kids U’Know. If you haven’t seen the show, it’s the funniest sketch comedy series that requires surgeon-level precision in who you recommend it to. It’s like trying to recommend Scene 27 of Our RoboCop Remake. Either they'll love it, or it'll be the last time they ever speak to you.
Anyway, the film plays more like a running sketch across multiple episodes of the show, similar to what they did with Civil War on Drugs. It’s also obviously closer tonally to what you would expect from a movie created by members of a comedy troupe.
Oddly enough, Barbarian feels more in line, structurally, to a WKUK sketch, especially the more elaborate ones. Their funniest sketches are the ones that have a simple premise that expands and goes into outlandish directions. If you watch the "Classroom" skit, "Cubicle Boss", or the "Genie" sketch, they’ll almost definitely not end the way you’d think they will. Barbarian had that explosive unpredictability to it, but that’s not really the case for Miss March. It’s straightforward and plays out pretty much exactly how you would expect, minus some brief moments of absurdity, like the visual of two firetrucks encircling the duo’s car with firemen waving axes around like lunatics. It's such a bizarre image that if it moves tonally a few degrees to the left, it’s something out of WKUK, and a few degrees to the right, it’s something out of Weapons.
Speaking of Weapons, there are a couple of strange parallels that Miss March has to Cregger’s most recent outing, whether they were intentional or not. Some things could be considered circumstantial, like having a wacky occurrence at a gas station, a nightmare sequence, and the main leads having a run-in at the hospital, but both films also have an instance of side characters being stabbed repeatedly in the face with a fork. Usually, that’d be a one-time thing, but Cregger felt differently. It’s a good thing, too, since that’s one of the more horrific moments in Weapons.
Also—and this might be a stretch—after watching the two movies almost back-to-back, Amy Madigan’s performance as Gladys feels like a more disturbing version of Trevor Moore’s performance in Miss March. Not the moments where she’s overtly sinister, but the times when she has to put up a front. Her energized faux-cheerful attitude and rubber face expressions feel oddly similar to Moore as Tucker, who’s an intentionally exaggerated and cartoon-like character. It’s as if they’re at opposite ends of the spectrum of how zaniness can be used for comedy and horror.
Miss March acts almost as a unique transitional project between Zach Cregger’s comedic television work in Whitest Kids U’Know and his acclaimed film work in the horror genre, for which he’s quickly becoming a household name. It also demonstrates both his growth as a technical filmmaker and his progression as a screenwriter and storyteller, not to mention his efficiency with a budget. Miss March has roughly the same budget as Barbarian, estimated at around $4.6 million, whereas Barbarian was $4.5 million. Not quite sure where the money went. That is, unless a beardless pre-Comedy Central Roasting Anthony Jeselnik asked for a steep salary for a walk-on bit part…oh yeah, he’s in this too.