One day in Maybrook, Pennsylvania, at 2:17 A.M., seventeen kids got up and walked out of their homes and vanished into the night.
Weapons starts, and we are launched into the premise, following five different perspectives that are caught up in the series of events that have led up to this.
While the film wasn’t entirely marketed with this approach in mind, it is what sought multiple buyers over its Magnolia-styled anthology. Eventually landing at New Line Cinema, a Warner Bros. subsidiary that is trying to reinvigorate its early genre associations.
Weapons served as a way to not only reinvigorate a brand that has dealt with mostly Conjuring movies within the past decade, it serves another purpose. To bring original filmmakers back into a studio that has held a long filmmaker driven association.
As for the anthology approach within Weapons? I felt it worked as it served to reflect different stages and manifestations of grief. Throughout the film, the cinematography remained fluid towards particular characters, the film broke into chapters named after them. This has effectively created a time loop, as character sections often over-lap and continue past their end point within sections belong to the characters preceding them. This has helped the film not only keep momentum but also leave the audience in the dark before the next chapter begins.
The very premise and titles of Weapons indicates a sense of grief over the loss of children. While the film is direct with its metaphor in a particular sequence as a father sees an AR-15 above his own roof where his child sleeps; the film keeps this open-ended by having other characters with a different sense of grief. The film does not have direct answers for what the audience can choose to take the core premise as a metaphor for. It could represent COVID-19 within schools or the rampant school shootings in America. What is true is there is a lack of closure over either instant.
Weapons isn’t all foreboding and serves as a dark comedy in many ways, this helps dispel the viewer enough for a new scare to launch shortly after. With Cregger digging into his comedy past, it helps him utilize his comedy skills of The Whitest Kids U’Know fame to help him balance the scares within this film.
With this being Zach Cregger’s third film (Miss March counts) and his second horror film, he is quickly proving himself to be an incredibly visual and musically driven director. Cregger having a credit as one of the composers of the film has shifted how the visuals are driven vs his previous film, Barbarian. The music feels though of within the filming of the sequence and often reflect the camera work as it ranges from tranquil to chaotic. Its true effect is how the score is used to weaponize jump scares and throw the audiences off based on what they expect to happen and what actually happens.
As for the camera work, like his previous film, Barbarian, there are inventive camera shots as characters move through doors. Frequently clinging to their movement, the camera at times can be seen sticking to the side of them. The camera work is precise, but isn’t afraid to have moments of chaos.
Zach Cregger stays true to what people loved about his style while slowly weaving iconic shots from classic horror films and incorporating environmental details that also serve as reflections of characters. Doors open slowly, characters linger from inside, and some characters remain isolate from the world around them. What both his films understand very well is that the environment a character lives in has to represent the character themselves. This is the world they occupy and as a result their space must reflect who they are. Given that the film is broken is different sections as they relate towards the characters, this remains evident. We may live in the same world, but that does not mean our world is the same.
While some audiences may find themselves divided over the broken down nature of this film, I felt this help further separate the film from not only Cregger’s previous efforts, but the horror films that already exist within this landscape. Weapons is a solid sophomore horror effort from Cregger and helps showcase the confidence this director has. After Barbarian, it would have been easy to go a safer route, but by remaining bold and driven towards different stories, this helps increase the scope of what Cregger does moving forward.
The camera work is more confident, the writing is more daring and the scope is bigger. With Cregger set to direct Resident Evil next, I can’t help but wonder how he invigorates that franchise and how he operates within that scale.
As for his next original effort? I’m there. I’ll be seated and await what the next absurd horror film comes from his mind.
Watch the trailer right here.
All images via Warner Bros. Discovery.
Directed by Zach Cregger
Screenplay by Zach Cregger
Produced by Zach Cregger, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, J. D. Lifshitz, Raphael Margules
Starring Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan
Premiere Date: August 6, 2025
Running Time: 128 minutes
Cinema from the Spectrum 
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