Cregger brandishes considerable ‘Weapons’

Cinema | August 13th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

The wildly talented and ambitious Zach Cregger drags us back to the basement in “Weapons,” one of the year’s most satisfying and enjoyable films of any genre. While fans of “Barbarian” know to expect the unexpected when it comes to the filmmaker’s investment in horror and comedy, Cregger’s latest feature will expand his audience to waves of newcomers eager to see what the hype is about. Opening weekend performance at the box office has been as strong as the general critical consensus.

Word of mouth should continue to drive turnout, but don’t sleep: “Weapons” is the kind of movie that surprises and delights and rewards viewers who go in knowing little to nothing about it. And while this review aims to minimize any spoilers, I would encourage you to stop reading until you have watched the film. The premise leads us to believe that Cregger plans to explore the trauma of America’s ongoing crisis of school shootings through a chilling metaphor; 17 of the 18 third-graders enrolled in Justine Gandy’s class awake in the middle of the night and run away from their homes at exactly the same time, leaving no trace as to their whereabouts. A shocked and mystified community demands answers.

One frustrated and suspicious parent, a general contractor named Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), begins his own investigation after suggesting that Justine (Julia Garner) isn’t telling authorities everything she knows. Archer and Justine at first appear to be the central characters. But Cregger’s screenplay soon reveals a structure in the tradition of “Rashomon,” doubling back over events from the perspectives of several other important people. “Weapons” evolves into a layered symphony as each new chapter drives toward a deeper understanding of what is really going on. The approach also gives Cregger the space required to outline and refine the underlying themes of grief, loneliness and addiction.

Some of those other people include police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), drug addict and burglar James (Austin Abrams), school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), student Alex (Cary Christopher) — the sole child from Justine’s class who did not disappear — and Alex’s aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan). The cross-section of society embodied by Cregger’s supporting players ties “Weapons” together like a miniature version of “The Rules of the Game.” Cregger has cited Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia” and Jennfier Egan’s novel “A Visit From the Goon Squad” as inspirations. Throughout the movie, which caroms from pitch-black humor to creeping dread to enough gruesome splatter to please the discerning gorehound, the director compels us to continually increase our emotional investment.

Cregger consistently shows a command of tone that turns out to be the most audacious and creative dimension of “Weapons.” By the time we reach an absolutely bonkers final section, the scares and the laughs are being traded like a top-tier Wimbledon rally. Cregger, whose liberal application of the evergreen and contextually apropos question “What the fuck?” (the phrase is uttered by multiple characters and works every single time), also pays direct homage to “Raising Arizona” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Every ounce of bottled-up tension comes blasting out of the screen in a firehose of cathartic release that wholly melts down any boundary between the horrific and the comedic.

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