Weapons

“Weapons” doesn’t just get under your skin – it penetrates the subconscious, demanding dialogue. In the spirit of Edelstein, consider this: even its misfires are honest, even its fears have a purpose – this is horror that thinks and is not ashamed to bleed.

Movie Review: Weapons (2025)

Zach Cregger, the wild-card auteur behind Barbarian, returns with Weapons, a supremely unsettling horror-mystery that cements his reputation as one of the bravest voices in genre filmmaking. On its surface, the setup is simple yet spine-tingling: seventeen elementary school kids vanish simultaneously at precisely 2:17 a.m., leaving a small Illinois community unraveling in suspicion, grief, and paranoia.

But simplicity here is deceptive. Cregger shards the story into six chapters, each a prism refracting different POVs—from Julia Garner’s overburdened teacher to Josh Brolin’s tormented, grief-stricken father, to a flawed cop (Alden Ehrenreich) and a haunted principal (Benedict Wong). The narrative architecture is loose, even labyrinthine, yet it pulses with eerie coherence. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes laud it as “a genre-bending experience that’s original, entertaining, and satisfying”.

What sets Weapons apart is its tonal agility. Cregger doesn’t just build dread—he modulates it. A theatrical laugh might follow a children’s prayer, an unsettling sequence veers into grim satire, and a horror icon emerges in Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys, a masterstroke of screen villainy that invokes black magic, vampiric energy, and pure gothic nightmare.

The performances are remarkable. Julia Garner anchors the film with harrowing tension—she’s accused of crimes she didn’t commit, yet we feel her trauma in every quiet beat. Brolin’s grief is lived-in, raw: as EW reports, the man literally fell asleep during a scene meant to evoke dreamlike torment – and the camera kept rolling. Such honest accidents underscore the verisimilitude he brings to the screen.

In a summer of endless franchising and infinite sameness, Weapons is that rare beast—a horror film that invites both visceral reaction and intellectual rumination.