Review: ‘Weapons’ is a dark, absurd, and horrific delight

2025 / Dir. Zach Cregger

☆ 4.5/5

To get right to it, director Zach Cregger’s follow-up to his breakthrough Barbarian is the most fun I’ve had at the movies this year. Building upon the blend of dark humor, intense scares, gross-out gags, and playful plot structure that made his previous film an unexpected hit, Weapons is a breath of fresh air for the horror genre. 

Picking up weeks after all but one of teacher Justine Gandy’s (Julia Garner) students bolted from their houses at 2:17 am, Weapons follows several members of a divided community searching for answers, with most turning toward Justine as a possible suspect. Subverting expectations at every turn, Justine is not the meek “final girl” waiting to find strength amidst tragedy. She’s a cantankerous, messy drunk sucking down another drink from a gas station soda cup while she stakes out the creepy house one of her students lives in.  

Most of the characters we encounter in Weapons are equally, or more so, as much of a mess as Justine. Archer (Josh Brolin) deals with the loss of his son through conspiracy hunting and stalking Justine around town, and a philandering cop (Alden Ehrenreich) couldn’t care less about the kids if it interferes with chasing down the town junkie (a scene-stealing Austin Abrams, who gives Justin Long’s measuring tape scene from Barbarian a run for his money). Each character feels like a real person in a way that’s refreshing compared to the tired stereotypes that stuck around in horror for decades. 

Weapons, even more so than Barbarian, is built around 10- to 15-minute sections for each of its main characters that inevitably build to a terrifying or absurd climax before dropping us into the lap of the next character. While we see events and characters from different points of view, this isn’t a puzzle box or “everything’s connected” movie. Rather, the characters chaotically smash into each other and barrel the plot forward, propelled by the agile cinematography of Larkin Seiple, whose camera is constantly on the move.

After several years of deadly serious horror, Cregger’s decision not to center this story around grief and to find its own tone and visual language is more than welcome. More than that, it feels modern and truer to the world we live in today, where we’re each in our own algorithmically driven universe coexisting on top of one another without traditional boundaries of the past between politics, arts, and culture. Cregger’s film doesn’t blend horror and comedy like a genre pastiche as much as it feels like its own natural world of suburban malaise and existential American dread. 

Weapons isn’t an M. Night Shyamalan type of movie that hinges around a twist or how all these characters come together, although when they do and finally encounter what’s behind the disappearance of these kids, it’s absurd in all the right ways. But try to avoid spoilers and go in without knowing too much. I’d recommend going as soon as possible with a big crowd and enjoying this unhinged experience together. 

Watch if you like: Barbarian, Longlegs, and wondering what your childless, kooky older relatives get up to when they’re not at family parties.