Weapons

“Are You Watching?” Zach Cregger, perhaps the most promising voice in modern horror, returns to the genre after his 2022 directorial debut “Barbarian”- a wildly fun and gory ride with genuine emotional beats that came right out of nowhere and a phenomenal look at the different archetypes of toxic masculinity. - with his 2025 sophomore effort “Weapons” a sleek, ingenious, supernatural, thrilling and thoroughly scary affair that explores the core of communal trauma that demands to be seen, and is a level up from “Barbarian” in every sense of the phrase. Whereas “Barbarian” lost me a bit in its third act, ignoring opportunities for genuine scares or satisfying payoffs in favor of a more comical tone, “Weapons” is a bona fide horror masterpiece, that holds such unheard of confidence from a filmmaker on only his second film at its core. It fearlessly balances tone brilliantly, and doesn’t waste a second Similarly to “Barbarian”, “Weapons” structure focuses on different characters points of view, and often switches between them. “Barbarian” used perspective in tandem with tone, shifting drastically to introduce a new character to join in the mayhem in a manner that always worked, but it felt surface level in a lot of ways, not using the format to explore anything deeper. It was used to move the story along, that’s all, and that’s fine. But “Weapons” takes full advantage of Cregger’s writing in such a deliciously satisfying way, refining the form he introduced with his previous film with its nonlinear approach. The film consists of six different points of view of six different characters, each one ostensibly showing the spillover effect the inciting incident of the film caused, and the effect it holds on the town itself. But “Weapons” doesn’t just show you the spillover, it makes you feel it. It’s used throughout the film as an allegory for societal reaction to tragedy in the modern age, more specifically, communal horrors centered around gun violence. Demonstrating how the extreme sensationalism and over obsession with justification and motive for any action taken kills any chance at genuine progress, and how we insist on attacking and nitpicking others effected to make ourselves feel better, and the smallest issues caused by the biggest problem rather than finding and attacking the root of what is truly wrong. Each character we follow throughout the course of the movie represents a different failing of the system that is supposed to keep us and our children safe. Of course, when it comes to Alex’s character and chapter, we get so see a victim of this failing system, with his story largely consisting of growing up with alcoholic parents, with his aunt and main antagonist of the story Gladys’ supernatural abilities to weaponize others and trigger them to do horrid things to others and themselves, being a more literal version of destructive tendencies and addiction triggers themselves. The disappearance of the kids from Justine’s class affects everyone we follow in the story differently. But the two characters it affects the most, the two characters we find occupying the focus of the films first two chapters, are the only two who come out on top: Justine, and Archer. Archer blames Justine for the disappearance of the kids in the first half of the film. But after a horrifying encounter with the now weaponized principal of Maybrook elementary, Marcus, at a gas station, They both (most notably Archer) stop fighting each other, and put their differences aside to work together to attack the source of the problem, and bring these kids home. They take it upon themselves to change- because they’re the only people in the film who come to terms with the fact that blaming others, and focusing on smaller problems, only serves to make things infinitely worse than they already were. As I said, the structure of the film is phenomenal, but I believe that’s lifted by the performances, seeing as how each chapter of the film is focused on a different character of course. Justine Gandy is played by the great Julia Garner, who in this film, does in fact “know shit about fuck”, and she absolutely nails the frantic worry, frustration and fear of being the open season target for a town’s misguided witch hunt- I would’ve enjoyed seeing her teacher side more, but what we got was very nice. Archer Graff played by Josh Brolin is similarly terrific as a grieving father who fears that he may never see his kid again, and is willing to do anything to get him back. and as previously stated, he works incredibly well with Justine as they represent opposite ends of the spectrum of reaction to tragedy together. Alden Ehrenreich is fun as the police officer Paul, and his scenes with scene stealer Austin Abrams’ James are all hilarious and fucked in their own right. Austin Abrams having some of the best moments in the whole film altogether. Benedict Wong is also great, but the best part of the movie in my opinion, is absolutely Amy Madigan’s horrifying Aunt Gladys. she might just be one of my favorite antagonists in recent memory, and possibly my favorite onscreen witch of all time. and that’s because she’s written so goddamn well. Cregger knows that she can look and be inherently silly with her wig, voice, and fucked up over-applied makeup, but he never allows her to slip into the realm of being goofy or unbelievable; she is constantly fucking scary from the first time you see her in the film on Justine’s ceiling, to her final moments wherein she’s being eaten and torn to shreds by the very kids she abducted and was feeding off of. And it certainly helps that she’s never overused, or overshown. She’s in it for the perfect amount of time, to leave her mark, and stay with the audience, without losing any punch her character holds. The witchcraft lore Cregger writes is phenomenal. He explains it just enough to make sense, but keeps enough ambiguous for you to draw your own conclusions- and I love that. This is a movie that has the perfect amount of lore. Original Horror has been killing it this year, with Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners”, the Philippou’s phenomenal “Bring Her Back”, and Alex Scharfman’s “Death of a Unicorn”, so I suppose it’s no surprise that the writer director of one of the most out of nowhere best horror films of 2022 returns to give us one of the best out of nowhere horror films of 2025. “Weapons” is a horror masterpiece in every sense of the word. And one of my favorite horror films period. Every aspect of it is so intricate and well crafted in a way that’s impossible to ignore. With a Mystery that hooks you instantly, genuine scares that will shake you to your core, and phenomenal performances around the board, “Weapons” only further cements Zach Cregger as a modern master of horror.