Weapons was released on August 8, 2025, to very strong reviews. Initial reactions were shocked and disgusted, not unusual for a horror movie, but this was different.
Director Zach Cregger had previously made the 2022 movie Barbarian, which I loved. He seems to have carved a niche of incredibly bizarre horror movies; Weapons is his most mainstream venture yet. The film smashed expectations, making $268 million globally on a budget of $38 million.
I started this movie with expectations of it being an interesting but run-of-the-mill supernatural horror flick, and boy was I in for a surprise. This movie bends the genre in such fun ways. Not only is it broken up into chapters, with each chapter being from the perspective of different characters, but it often breaks up its scares with comedy, not to the detriment of the horror.
The general plot is that all but one kid in the main character’s class suddenly got up one night, ran away, and never came home. As the police and parents try to find their kids, a sinister plot is revealed.
*Spoilers for those who haven’t seen the movie (which I highly recommend!)
This movie is very violent!
It is revealed that a witch controlled the kids to run away in order to steal their youth. But this is not the strangest part of the movie, far from it. What makes this amazing is the performance by Amy Madigan, which is electric and hilarious. While everyone else is acting in a horror/drama movie, she is acting in a comedy. Her line delivery and mannerisms are intentionally absurd so that when she switches to scary witch mode, it hits way harder.
This movie is incredibly funny, not only through its regular character interactions, but also through its scares. This movie often turns comedic right after or even during a scare. A moment can be so creepy or eerie that you can’t help but laugh, like the moment in the woods. The incredible jumpscare in the dream is immediately followed by a character hilariously cursing, which is a very reasonable reaction. And the final chase scene is not shot in close-ups or with shaky camerawork. It is instead shot in wide angles, giving it a hysterical comedic sense. These examples all elevate the movie rather than detract from it.
The practical gore in this movie is amazing. Some people hate gore in movies, but I love it. I’m not a psychopath, though. I think that gore is at its best when it is so over the top that it becomes absurd and comical. This is the case with much of this movie, like at the end, which is so violent that I cannot write about it here. There are also many moments in this movie that are very seriously violent, which was intentional since one of this movie’s many allegories is for mass shootings and real-life violence, so some of the violence had to be taken seriously.
This movie serves as a loose allegory for mass shootings, with its plot being about kids disappearing and the failure of the system to protect them. It is an important message about the state of society and how people become apathetic towards these kinds of events.
This is one of the best horror movies of this decade. There were so many moments where I was watching and just saying, “What the heck?” I can’t wait to see what this director does next.