WEAPONS: A Wild, Twisted Ride

WEAPONS (Blu-ray)

2025 / 128 min

Warner Bros

#InPartnershipwithWB

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

I have a feeling that being a Zack Cregger fan is going to be something of a challenge. 

Reviewing his first film, Barbarian, a few years ago, I had the good fortune of knowing absolutely zero about the premise or plot. In addition to being extremely well written and atmospheric, to say nothing of brutal, it repeatedly surprised me with its story turns and dramatic tonal shifts. That unpredictability was a big part of what made it the best horror film of 2022. 

While elevated expectations were probably unavoidable, I did manage to avoid learning anything about Cregger’s Weapons beyond the title and an intriguing trailer that revealed little (the way all of trailers should be). That wasn’t easy because, unlike Barbarian, this one was a blockbuster and all the hype made the internet a virtual minefield. So it was with a sense of victory that my daughters and I bought our tickets over a week into the movie’s theatrical run…

…and not only did Weapons live up to the hype, it surpassed my expectations. Like Barbarian, it’s a wild, original film that's best viewed cold, so consider yourself lucky if you’re able to. Because of this, I’ll avoid revealing the plot in any detail, which begins with the unexplained disappearance of 17 children from a small suburbia. At exactly 2:17 AM, they simply wake up, leave their homes and run off into the night.

When the ice cream truck arrives past curfew.

Obviously, the children' s disappearance is central to the narrative, but the story is no mere mystery. It’s still primarily a horror film - and a pretty brutal one, too - but divided into intersecting chapters, each presented from a specific character’s point of view somewhat akin to Kurosawa’s Rashomon. With each chapter comes unexpected plot or character revelations - some which are shocking - and it all comes together for a memorable climax.

This time around, Cregger infuses his intelligent story with unexpected personal drama and twisted black comedy, the latter of which I suspect some horror purists may not appreciate. But as someone who enjoys my expectations being subverted, I thought it was a great touch. Elsewhere, the story features an ensemble of engaging, believable characters, all well-performed by a great cast (including Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich and Amy Madigan). 

Overall, 2025 has been a pretty damn good year for smart, original horror, with the likes of Sinners, Bring Her Back and now Weapons ranking among the best of them. Here’s hoping Zack Cregger remains this dedicated to unpredictability for the rest of his career, even if it does keep me off the internet for a couple of weeks every few years (which probably ain’t a bad thing)

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - Director Zack Cregger: Making Horror Personal; Weaponized: The Cast of Weapons; Weapons: Texture of Terror. Each featurette runs 6-10 minutes, and their titles are more-or-less explanatory.