Scare Value Award Winner – Best Actress
Scare Value Award Winner – Best Screenplay
Top 10 Film of 2025
Weapons review
Believe the hype.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Weapons
Directed by Zach Cregger
Written by Zach Cregger
Starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Cary Christopher, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrahms, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan
Weapons Review
Zach Cregger burst onto the scene in a big way with Barbarian in 2022. It hit theaters exactly one week before this website launched. Well…here we both are. One with the most anticipated horror movie of the summer…and the other…writing a review of it. I found Barbarian to be a fun watch…certainly a strong debut in the genre. I never got the sense that I thought as highly of it as most, however. Perhaps it was a bit wilder than people expect in their mainstream horror. Maybe its unpredictable nature blindsided them in just the right way. I saw a very good film…a very fun movie…that staked up well with the best that independent horror has been offering for a while now. Seeing it make headway in the mainstream was the real gift. A gift that brings Cregger’s Weapons to theaters with a lot of buzz.
Part of what made the lead up to Weapons’ release so strong is how little we really knew about it going in. As such…you should probably watch the movie for yourself before seeking out reviews. I’m obviously going to avoid spoiler talk here…but being completely unaware of everything Weapons does, and how it does it, will give you the best possible viewing experience. The marketing for the film pretty much stopped at “a classroom full of children disappeared at the same time one night”. More movies should follow that lead.
Cregger has described Weapons as an epic horror film. I’d describe it as a tapestry. Overlapping threads that are all necessary to see the big picture. The story is divided into the viewpoints of different characters. Many of the same moments are revisited from those new angles with different context behind them. The entire story unfolds this way…stepping back to gain a fuller understanding and then moving forward before doubling back again. The result is a movie that becomes deeper and more interesting as it progresses. The first loop leaves you with a lot of questions. Each successive pass brings us closer to solving the mystery of what happened to those kids at 2:17 am. Rest assured…we get the full story by the time Weapons ends. A full story taking in several different points of view.
It’s quite the undertaking. Pulling it off to the degree that Cregger has is quite the accomplishment. I can see why he used the word “epic”. The story presents a mystery, delivers it in as engaging a way as you’ll find…and, ultimately, gives horror fans something to sink their teeth into. My favorite part of Weapons is the exact thing that non-horror fans may see as an unwanted turn. It knows that it’s a horror movie. In fact, it’s a very specific kind of horror movie. One that it hides from viewers for a long time. No matter how clever and engaging the build is…it never forgets what kind of story it actually is. It’s dressed up for the masses with a terrific cast and prestige level storytelling. Underneath is a high quality, fully realized entry into a subgenre of horror I won’t reveal here.
Let’s circle back to the cast for a moment. Top to bottom…one of the best ensembles ever presented in the genre. Everyone has their moment to shine…and every single person nails it. It’s a true ensemble too. While the major players will get to lead their own sections of the story…everyone becomes a supporting (if not background) character in someone else’s experience. The characters are all three dimensional…full of flaws and overwhelmed by their situations.
Julia Garner as the tortured teacher whose class (save one) has disappeared. Josh Brolin as a devastated father desperately searching for answers. Alden Ehrenreich as a local police officer who attempts to do better than he achieves. Benedict Wong as the school principal trying to appease all sides. Austin Abrams as a drug addict who stumbles onto a massive secret. Cary Christopher as the only child who didn’t run out into the darkness that night. And Amy Madigan…stealing every scene as a character who doesn’t (fully) show up until a ways into Weapons. Her role in the story finally begins to reveal what the true story is. A wrecking ball that demolishes everything we thought we knew. In a movie full of great performances…Madigan’s career best moment is the one I’ll be thinking about come awards time.
Cregger’s direction has leveled up considerably since Barbarian as well. This is a triple-A level production from top to bottom. It’s filled with beautiful shots. Some of the early choices that Cregger makes may feel unnecessarily self-indulgent…but when we see the scenes again from a different perspective the method to that madness reveals itself. He creates unforgettable moments and then infringes upon them with fresh eyes in a way that completely evokes your initial feelings while changing your understanding. A movie that looks like something everyone would be attracted to…hiding a horror center that genre fans will appreciate.
The only question I had while watching Weapons was whether it would have been better off as a mini-series. The story would feel right at home in a six-episode HBO/Netflix series. Each episode could focus on a different character…the story (and mystery) progressing and being further filled in every week. By the time the movie ended it was clear to me that it belonged in theaters. Deep enough to carry a longer format…but too big to be contained on a streaming service. Of course, it all ends up there one day. But the promise of Zach Cregger’s surprise hit Barbarian has been fully realized by his second go around. Weapons isn’t just a movie you should go see in theaters…it’s one of the best movies of the year.
Scare Value
Everything about Weapons from marketing to resolution hits. The performances are top-notch. The production quality is unmatched. Most importantly, Weapons is a horror movie. A specific kind of horror movie. It tricks you into not looking for it…then shoves it in your face. That should play well with genre fans. For casual, mainstream viewers it could feel like they’ve been blindsided in the same way that Barbarian did to them in 2022. Weapons is the better movie. The move complete vision. The epic tapestry.
4.5/5
Weapons Link
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