Weapons is Zach Cregger’s latest film. The 2025 American mystery horror film was directed, written, produced, and co-scored by Cregger himself. He is also known for writing and directing the 2022 horror film Barbarian, starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, and Justin Long, which evoked humor and thrills; but its successor has received mixed reactions.
Cregger began writing Weapons as an outlet to deal with the overwhelming emotion and grief brought on by the sudden death of his close friend, Trevor Moore, in 2021. The act of writing Weapons became a way for Cregger to process his emotions and explore the fragmented reality that grief creates. The film itself uses weapons as a metaphor to explore various themes, including the weaponization and corruption within different systems, and the different facets of grief and pain.
The movie is set in the small town of Maybrook, Illinois, where 17 third graders from the same class —with the exception of one boy, Alex Lilly— are mysteriously seen running from their homes at exactly 2:17 AM. Captured on various doorbell cameras, they seem to have a specific destination. The movie unfolds through six different interlinked characters, driven by six different chapters involving their individual experiences of the same situations.
Julia Garner as Justine Gandy, the teacher whose life is turned upside down after the children vanish from her class, and Josh Brolin as Archer Graff, a father determined to uncover the truth behind his son’s disappearance, are the main focus of the first two chapters.
Despite the movie’s buildup and tension, many viewers have criticized the film’s lack of suspense and poorly crafted character arcs. Critics claim the narrative’s “chapter-by-chapter structure… unintentionally reveals that Weapons is shooting blanks”, jumping between characters through different chapters, but never deepening their arcs or the central mystery.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Critics have also focused on the film’s villain and their reveal towards the ending. The “villain” can be seen periodically throughout the movie, appearing in various nightmares as a clown. Some believe these jump scares are the villain’s only defining moments until the end.
After the villain is revealed to be using witchcraft, viewers say the movie becomes boring and lifeless. The movie’s finale is received as a “bad joke” and takes away any suspense the film was able to create, due to the witchcraft element taking over the entire plot.
END OF SPOILERS.
Other viewers, like myself and professional viewer Roger Ebert, however, recognize the experimental aspects of the film and praise the acting. Ebert stated that Cregger seemed to experiment with the film’s pacing, “[dividing] his story into character-driven chapters, giving it a more ensemble feel than if the narrative had moved in a straight line”. The actor’s different perspectives evidently added mystery as well as a deep personal touch to the story, for the “performers [were] strong, bringing their own energy to the piece”.
Weapons received a 93% on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, but bad reviews still overwhelm the fanbase. 65% of viewers say they would “definitely recommend it”, and others say it’s a complete waste of time and money. If you were to watch the movie, which stance would you take?
