REVIEW: “Weapons” (2025)

(Courtesy IMDb) 

In our current cinematic trend of modern-day elevated horror, several up-and-coming filmmakers have helped push the genre to new lengths and heights, from Robert Eggers (The Witch) to Ari Aster (Hereditary) and, of course, certainly Jordan Peele (Get Out). The latest to join that list of daring and original filmmakers (and who has a thing or two in common with Peele) is Zach Cregger, a former comedian-writer who first broke out with the sketch comedy series Whitest Kids U Know, before writing and directing his first horror feature, the critical and commercial hit Barbarian, in 2022. 

Already one of the most talked-about films of 2025, Cregger’s sophomoric feature, Weapons, sets its story up with a chilling premise—one that sounds like an urban legend or a scary bedtime story. 17 children from the same elementary school classroom mysteriously leave their homes at the exact same time one night and go missing. Questions arise rapidly: What exactly happened? Who is to blame? And who knows something everybody else doesn’t? (The marketing department deserves props for keeping ads and trailers as spoiler-free as possible.) 

The film’s stellar cast is headlined by Julia Garner, as a schoolteacher whose students, save for one, are those missing, and who is pigeonholed as the one responsible for their absences. Josh Brolin is a desperate parent looking for answer, and willing to cross the line to get them. Benedict Wong plays a school principal trying to keep things in check. Alden Ehrenreich plays an incompetent police officer. And Amy Madigan plays a character so creepy, she’ll get under your skin, like the film itself. This non-linear story is told in chapters devoted to these main or supporting characters—many of them in all their complexities and morally gray areas—and how they all interconnect. 

These are characters who are alcoholics, addicts, and/or ego-driven. One is a father (Brolin) who regrets not being there for his son; the fact that he sleeps in his boy’s empty bedroom is a sign of his vulnerability. Another is an addict (Austin Abrams) who does anything he can (looting cars, breaking and entering homes) to satisfy drug cravings. “Try to get out of your own head,” one person advises another. 

The effect of this 2025 release was best described by a colleague of mine as a slow-burn. And one told on an epic scale, at that. (Think a cross between Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, considering one or two characters that recall Danny Torrence from that latter fright fest, while the aforementioned score recalls composer Jon Brion’s work from Punch-Drunk Love.) Artistically and thematically, Weapons is bold and atmospheric filmmaking, with darkness lurking around every corner, and a subversive music score that balances horror with indie comedy. 

Even so, the imagery of children running out into the night is chilling. The tone is eerie and unsettling, with effective and unexpected jump scares and out-of-nowhere attacks. On that note, scenes of shocking violence (including but not limited to police pursuits/brutality) are spare. But when they happen, they hit you right in the face. One such occurrence takes place at a gas station during a heated argument, which takes a shocking turn when someone/something else makes an unannounced visit. 

One theatre patron I talked to wondered what the underlying theme was for the film, or if it had one at all. I think there are several meanings, including how the film’s title suggests what or who is being “weaponized.” There are harsh themes of parental neglect, child abandonment or abuse, manipulation, control, embodiments of evil, dark spirituality, and deception/cover-ups. Viewers may also think of chicken soup differently after seeing this film. It may have been Cregger’s intention to leave a subjective experience and interpretation for the individual viewer, from the first frame to a final act that, while not as strong as the rest of the film, will leave your jaw on the floor, and literally floor you in the messiest way. That's the thing about elevation, though. Sooner or later, things are bound to come down. 

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