Review: Weapons
A major surprise with a blend of horror and dark humor.
When all but one child in teacher Justine Gandy’s class suddenly disappears, a mystery begins to unfold in a small American town. While the police try to understand why all the children vanished overnight, Justine struggles with the wave of criticism and suspicion directed at her. Is she responsible for the disappearances, or… is someone else, or something else, behind it?
After watching hundreds of horror movies and thrillers over a lifetime, it's a rare treat to encounter a film that feels genuinely fresh and unfamiliar. It suggests originality, respect for the genre, and true talent in a space where it’s notoriously hard to avoid clichés. Weapons is such a film.
And director Zach Cregger clearly fits the bill as well. He now joins the ranks of intriguing new voices in horror, alongside names like Ari Aster and Oz Perkins. The latter’s Longlegs from last year is perhaps the closest comparison I can draw to Weapons in recent years—though not because the two films are similar. Rather, it’s more about tone and style than plot. There’s something Stephen King-esque in the mystery here, and a touch of M. Night Shyamalan’s strangeness.
The plot revolves around the disappearance of an entire elementary school class. The only one not missing is Alex, one of the boys in Justine’s (Julia Garner) class. The film is structured in chapters: first, we follow Justine; then Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), the father of one of the missing children. We also follow police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), as well as a handful of other characters—each offering a different piece of the puzzle about what happened before, during, and after that fateful night.
This narrative structure makes the story both engaging and immersive. The technique of showing the same events from different perspectives adds a compelling dimension that, with a more conventional approach, could easily have felt slow or dragged out.
The film’s first section is the creepiest and most suspenseful. From there, it shifts into almost a dark comedy more than a horror film, giving Weapons a distinct, two-part "slow-burn" quality that both surprises and entertains.
What actually happened to the schoolchildren is impossible to reveal without spoiling key elements of the film. Let’s just say the themes that eventually emerge are anything but everyday topics in cinema—at least not in our modern era.
This is a delightfully unpredictable take on the horror-thriller genre, where style, structure, and subject matter feel refreshingly different—and, for the most part, work extremely well. Embedded in the story are elements of satire aimed at human behavior, emotional reactions, (ir)rational fear, desperation, and hatred. Director Cregger, after all, has a background in comedy and satire through various sketch shows.
Cregger also made the distinct and genuinely creepy Barbarian in 2022—a film that clearly showcased his talent and ability to use the genre in interesting ways. With Weapons, he further proves what an exciting filmmaker he is, showing complete control over his craft. I, for one, am eager to see what he does next.
Weapons is a film you should know as little as possible about beforehand—which of course includes not watching the trailer. Just take my word for it. Few horror films actually live up to their hype, but Weapons surprises with its mix of horror and dark humor. You don’t want to miss this one!
(Photo/Copyright: Warner Bros. Discovery/Warner Bros. Pictures)