Weapons - Review

Rating: 4 out of 5

ZACH Cregger’s Weapons became the second most hyped and talked about horror film of 2025 behind Sinners - as well as an Oscar winner (Amy Madigan won for best supporting actress for her genuinely creepy turn).

An unsettling mix of thriller and horror, the film is certainly worth talking about given the way in which it unfolds while leaving plenty for audiences to ponder and debate afterwards.

Cregger himself admits that the film is born from grief, having been penned in the immediate aftermath of the sudden death of his friend and fellow filmmaker Trevor Moore in 2021 (in a balcony fall). He remains non-committal on any of its other takeaways, while insisting he loves seeing how different people interpret it.

Certainly, there’s plenty of room for discussion. Is Weapons merely just a hugely enjoyable mix of thriller and horror that doesn’t do anything other than what its story suggests? Or is it floating ideas for viewers to run with? Or is it merely lazy writing given how much ambiguity surrounds certain scenes and characters?

I’m more inclined to think a mix of the first two - Weapons is a strong cross-genre entry that tips its hat to plenty of films while toying with perception throughout like all the best and most provocative movies do.

The story intrigues from the outset. A girl narrator claims [falsely] that the events depicted are true. But her narrative grips nonetheless. One night in a small US town, 17 children from the same third-grade class wake up at 2.17am, leave their houses, and disappear into the night.

When the police search proves unsuccessful, parents lay the blame on the students’ teacher Justine (Julia Garner), who is as puzzled and disturbed about this as anyone else. The first chapter therefore focuses on her attempts to find answers.

It is followed by the story of Archer (Josh Brolin), who angrily demands to know what was “going on” in his missing son’s classroom, convinced that Justine must have played some role in this tragedy. He subsequently digs deeper, only to find even more disturbing truths.

Cregger’s narrative subsequently follows several other characters, including a cop (Alden Ehrenreich) and a small-time criminal (Austin Abrams), before landing at the one kid who didn’t run away, Alex (Cary Christopher) - and whose household holds some of the film’s few genuine answers.

And then there’s the mysterious Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), the ghoulish visitor to Alex’s home, whose sudden emergence also holds the key to the mystery.

Cregger has actually credited Madigan with saving his movie and loves the mystery inherent in her performance, having given her two ideas for how to play Glady’s back story without wanting to know which one she chose.

And while she’s certainly a witch, there’s no big explanation surrounding either her history (although a prequel is reportedly on the way) or her real motivation (she drains the energy of children to stay young and stave off a life threatening disease - but it’s unclear what brought her to this path).

Gladys is, however, a truly unsettling presence. She appears fleetingly at first, mostly by way of jump scares in dreams. One character spots her waving in a field in a scene that reminded me of Don’t Look Now.

But when the full extent of her power is finally revealed, it’s genuinely chilling and takes the film from a missing person’s thriller (albeit with weird, possibly supernatural elements) into full blown horror.

But then part of the sustained appeal of the movie is attempting to spot which films Cregger might be referencing. He has admitted to Magnolia and Prisoners as two - but there are also touches of Kubrick, David Lynch and Sam Raimi sprinkled around for good measure, as well as more than a little Grimms fairytale.

And then there’s the metaphors. Some have described Weapons as a dark fairytale about modern America, tackling everything from school shootings to how quickly communities (and countries) move on from tragedies. There are also, inevitably, insights into anger and grief.

There have also been suggestions that certain scenes offer commentary on schooling in the post-Covid era and how the trauma of that pandemic continues to linger, while a dream involving a giant AR-15 assault rifle in the sky above the town is viewed by many as a commentary on American gun culture and mass shooting events (again, particularly around schools).

Certainly, there is food for thought in all of these ideas. And, for me, horror works best when offering something broader than the genre - as Sinners did.

But where Ryan Coogler’s film openly confronted things like black history, racism and music, Cregger’s Weapons is more opaque.

And while its lack of answers does frustrate to some degree, it also ensures that the film lingers for some time afterwards, while encouraging a post-viewing immersion into the debates surrounding it. That’s certainly clever filmmaking.

Weapons therefore achieves all it sets out to: it entertains, it keeps you guessing, it creeps you out and it lingers in the memory for some time afterwards.

Certificate: 15

Running time: 2hrs 10mins