Weapons (2025) - Review (Spoilers)

From its enigmatic trailer and marketing media, to its impressive critical and audience reception, Zach Cregger's Weapons is taking the horror world by storm. After the innovative and well received release of Cregger's writing and directorial debut Barbarian (2022), it was only a matter of time before an equally chilling, genre bending project followed.

Weapons functions as both a horror and a mystery as it follows the aftermath of a peculiar tragedy which befalls the small town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania. At its core Weapons demonstrates how grief can warp all sense of rationality and utilises a comedic overtone to highlight the strange and seemingly inappropriate reactions we can have in the face of unexplainable, horrific events.

Weapons follows the perspectives of six individuals whose lives are directly or consequently affected by the disappearance of 17 school children who, at 2:17am on a random night, leave their houses and vanish into the darkness. Adopting a non-linear narrative, one of the story's main themes is grief and the coping mechanisms exhibited by parents, relatives and other members of a community after suffering the loss of a child, specifically when the loss is left unsolved and unexplained.

The first character we meet is Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) who has become the scapegoat of the town as all of the missing children were students in her class. Justine's grief over not only the loss of her students, but her job and the respect of her community, twists into an obsession and she becomes overly involved in the case and in the life of the sole survivor of the mystery, Alex Lilly. After following Alex home on several occasions and demonstrating an unwavering problem with alcohol, Justine is warned to leave things alone, so as to not further encourage the witch hunt the town has declared against her.

Justine's determination to find the missing children and ensure Alex's safety and wellbeing leads her perspective to intersect with the father of one of the missing children, Archer Graff (Josh Brolin). Understandably, Archer is upset, confused and impatient with the police investigation and crosses personal boundaries with other affected members of the town in order to prove his suspicion of Justine's involvement in the disappearance.

Whereas he dismisses Justine's grief as a desire to clear her name, he uses his own to justify imposing on the other parents and forcing them to relive the trauma they all underwent in a desperate attempt to find his son. Weapons can therefore be seen as a study into the specific grief experienced when a child has not simply died, but been lost with no explanation.

Cregger adopts the setting of a small, suburban town to demonstrate the scale on which a tragedy can rip through a once united community and provoke suspicion towards people once considered friends. Furthermore Justine and Archer demonstrate how individual and at times selfish the grieving process can be and the sort of irrational and hypocritical behaviour it can produce in the pursuit of vanquishing it.

Weapons also experiments with a hybrid of genres, exploring the tonal shift between horror and comedy in order to extract the most visceral, fearful reaction from audiences. During the opening sequence of the movie, 17 children run out into the darkness of the night never to be seen again. Whilst the concept of this act is sinister and unnerving, the stylistic choices made by Cregger to portray it seem unusually comical at a first glance.

The way in which the children run out of their houses can be seen as playful and unthreatening, as they dreamily glide into the street and the forest beyond. The inspiration for this movement however has much darker origins, as it was constructed with a famous image from the Vietnam War in mind - the haunting still, infamously known as 'Napalm Girl'. Moreover, it is George Harrison's soft, rock ballad 'Beware of Darkness' which accompanies this display; an atypical choice since the steady and serene melody that the song provides starkly juxtaposes the disquieting nature of the act which is unfolding. Viewers cannot help but feel uncomfortable and incredulous during this opening scene as the techniques adopted by Cregger provoke both nervous laughter and sheer horror, establishing the emotional rollercoaster which the film is about to take them on.  

Another element which perfectly balances horror and comedy in Weapons is the portrayal of the film's antagonist Gladys (Amy Madigan). Gladys is the aunt of the only remaining child in Justine Gandy's class, Alex Lilly. Upon first meeting her we are confronted with both an exaggerated appearance - bold and messy makeup paired with vibrant, clashing clothes - and her eccentric personality. She seems quirky and over familiar, yet not immediately threatening. However, imagery of her has appeared in the dreams of both Justine and Arthur Graff prior to her first introduction which frame her as demonic and supernatural.

As the film progresses we are again confronted with conflicting emotions, at one moment wanting to laugh at Gladys' clumsy appearance and the next hiding from the unsuspecting close ups which jumpscare us at moments when our guard is down. Overall it is the unique choices made by Cregger concerning the cinematography and sound design which makes Weapons such a compelling watch. Furthermore it establishes Weapons as a stand out amongst modern horror films as it highlights a distinctive style of filmmaking in which comedy and horror are harmonised in order to provoke the most disturbing viewing experience.

Read more:

Nerdist (2025) Possessed child in school classroom, Available at: WEAPONS Trailer Promises Us THE Horror Movie of the Summer - Nerdist (Accessed 16 August 2025)

Screenrant (2025) Children running into the darkness, Available at: Weapons Trailer: Runaway Children Have Never Seemed So Terrifying In Zach Cregger's Barbarian Follow-Up (Accessed 16 August 2025)

The Hollywood Reporter (2025) Julia Garner and Josh Brolin, Available at: 'Weapons' Review: Julia Garner and Josh Brolin in Zach Cregger Horror (Accessed 16 August 2025)

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Hope Lelliott Stevens