In December 2024, Barbarian director Zach Cregger’s next film, Weapons, described as “multistory horror epic,” had its release date pushed forward five months. The date change followed talks of an intense studio bidding war, in which Warner Bros.’ New Line Cinema acquired the distribution rights for a massive $38 million. Rumors since swirled that Universal Pictures lost the war alongside Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw banner, leading Peele to cut ties with his management reportedly for failing to win the rights. Considering the genre-defying success that was 2022’s Barbarian, it doesn’t take much to imagine why hype had been raised for Cregger’s next project so immensely. Combined with glowingly positive test reactions, Warner Bros. excitedly fast-tracked Weapons’ theatrical release.
Flash forward to Summer 2025, Weapons is preceded by a mighty 100% critic’s score on Rotten Tomatoes, and is now days away from hitting theaters. The world premiere for Weapons was held on July 31st at The United Theater in Los Angeles, and was attended by the film’s cast and crew, including Cregger and his wife, actress Sara Paxton. The premiere screening included red carpet, followed by an intricate arrangement only comparable to a Halloween Horror Nights haunted-house experience, with the entrance to the auditorium reached by navigating a pop-up sinister suburban home display and a classroom filled with real children, alluding to the film’s synopsis. Weapons follows the town of Maybrook, as they traverse the aftermath of the 17 children in Ms. Gandy’s, played by Julia Garner, elementary school classroom disappearing early one morning. Besides this logline and a statement from director Cregger mentioning the film’s “reinventive” nature, Weapons has managed to keep further plot elements under wraps for audiences to experience for themselves.
2025’s event-horror film, Weapons, unfurls to be a terrifying and tightly-woven anthological societal reflection. The bones of the film are perfectly drenched in the horror genre, with the thickest of tension accumulating each time a character moves through a dark room, as well as collective audience reactions after each of the movie’s cut-throat jump scares. However, Cregger proves he is once again able to blend the lines of genre, meeting the terror in Weapons with everyday, interpersonal drama and crisis, bringing to mind tonal comparisons to films like Hereditary or Infinity Pool. Weapons draws together its principal crop of Maybrook residents and spends its time with each selected member accordingly in its overlapping and sometimes non-linear edit. Garner, who was last seen in Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps as the first live-action female Silver Surfer, kicks off the events of the film as her character Justine Gandy is scrutinized by concerned-turned-vengeful parents, one of which played by Josh Brolin (Dune). Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange) plays the elementary school’s principal, while Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) plays a member of Maybrook’s police force. Also rounding out the cast are Austin Abrams (HBO’s Euphoria), Cary Christopher, Toby Huss, and Amy Madigan.
Each member of the cast gets their share of screen time as they play a role in unraveling the central mystery. As the decision is made to focus evenly on a plethora of personalities, it sometimes provokes a desire for a main anchor to grip onto for the length of the runtime. Instead, the viewers are forced to analyze and question information and motives when pushed into the next character’s perspective. Though by the end of the film, it’s clear that Garner and Brolin are the forces that bookend the film emotionally. Writer-director Cregger invokes a tone, both visually and verbally, that assists the actors in any given scene. Jokes are sparse, and instead, a purposefully awkward humor is found in unique line deliveries, playful cuts and camera movements, and heightened suspense in its many stressful scenes. Cregger commands his use of the camera, with the tracking shots in Weapons being both exhilarating and plentiful. The physicality seen in the film also stands at a remarkable level, with the eerie and already iconic visuals of Maybrook’s children sprinting so off-puttingly being a major standout. By the end of the film, the action presented both by camera and characters reels viewers in in a way that will cause them to shift in their seats and cheer throughout the explosive ending.
Weapons takes its time getting to the leap it makes by the third act. Early story and character elements are carefully set up, each leading to an intentional or perspective-changing payoff a few scenes later. While viewers may have to watch along closely and brave through some truly nail-biting sequences, the climax of the story leaves no questions unanswered. No character is safe from the terror that begins to inflict the town, each having a scream-worthy moment with the film’s mystifying antagonist, one that lands somewhere between those found in films such as Barbarian and Longlegs. One notable encounter takes place in a masterfully shot, phone-flashlight-only basement scene, making for an all-time jump scare in the process. The film is also not shy about its use of gore, both small and violent, and wonderfully crafted.
5/5 Stars
Like Barbarian but ten times the budget and stakes, Weapons plays as a dissertation that explores what happens to a small community when real-life terror threatens to unravel them, exposing flaws in their humanity as a result. Mistrust, hysteria, and unpredictability spread like wildfire in a small town like Maybrook. What the characters don’t know, however, is how far the mystery truly goes, and what evil waits for them beneath the covers. Weapons is sure to be heralded for its topsy-turvy storytelling nature, as well as its breakout ensemble performances and raw fear it invokes in its viewer. The film is meant to be seen as soon as possible, with as many people as possible. Difficult to piece together through a trailer, but thrilling to experience in real time, it’s event cinema at its peak. Come for the story, stay for the scares.
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