Weapons
Wow. Zach Cregger. Take a bow. The horror genre is in a weird place at the moment. You get promising ideas but they don’t normally deliver good films. You get meaningless gore fests. And as great as Stephen King is as an author, the genre does seem to be filled to the brim with film adaptations of his books. It’s not very often nowadays that you see a completely original horror film, with a really interesting premise, and it actually deliver an incredible film. This is really something special.
First, the way Weapons structures its narrative is absolutely perfect. It’s not a unique concept generally, but within horror, it isn’t often that you see this attention to detail in story-telling. I love how it shows you the perspectives of each key character, going forwards and backwards in time, but somehow, it never feels repetitive. It’s objectively non-linear story-telling, but with how well it adds more and more context to each character, expands on each plot-point, and completely captivates you as a viewer, it feels linear. It’s relentless, unpredictable, and so entertaining. And that ending is just perfect. I was getting scared that with the amount of characters there are and with how the 17 kids going missing was explained, that the ending wasn’t going to feel complete. But no, it ends brilliantly. Concludes the story in entertaining and gory fashion.
The horror elements, as expected, are great. The way it builds tension is exceptional and then the actual gore is brilliant too. But what I also loved, is how it didn’t feel the need to force horror elements throughout. There is actually a lot of bright and suspenseless scenes in the first half. That not only makes the plot much more developed and interesting, but it makes the excruitaiting gore at the end feel earnt and rewarding, especially with who the gore is coming from. It’s horror done perfectly.
In summary, excellent. My favourite film of 2025. And with this release, despite my comments on the state of horror in the introduction, I think this shows that there is some shining lights. Zach Cregger, Danny/Michael Phillipou, Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, and more - in actuality, there is plenty to be hopeful for. Absolutely recommended.
(p.s. Barbarian has shot up the watchlist now)