Weapons(2025)(Review) - Gruesome Gazette

We finally made it. My most anticipated release of the year has finally dropped into theaters and received a massive amount of attention. I’ve been a fan of director Zach Cregger since middle school – before he was directing films – back when he was part of the Whitest Kids U Know troupe. His previous film, ‘Barbarian’, was my #1 movie of the year when it released in 2022. So how does his follow up compare? Let’s dive in.

And unlike every other review site out there, this will be spoiler-free. Because I care about y’all.

On a random day, Ms. Gandy walked into her third-grade classroom to discover that only one child has shown up. It turns out, at 2:17 AM the night prior, every other child mysteriously got up and vanished into the darkness. The only evidence the families and police have to go off of are Ring doorbell cameras that recorded them running out their doors with their arms by their side in a strange, airplane-like way. What we experience through the film is essentially a 48-hour period that picks up sometime after this event takes place, as we try to make sense of what happened.

This film is told through a series of interconnecting vignettes. We follow the teacher Justine Gandy – whose become a pariah by the community, grieving father Archer – whose desperate to find what happened to his son, Paul – a police officer struggling with sobriety, James – a drifting drug addict, Marcus – the school principal, and Alex – the only child who returned to class. Each section gives us a specific piece to the puzzle as it unfurls, and work together to let the audience make sense of the situation. Every character is beautifully fleshed out, has many nuances that complicate our opinions on them, and build up to a big punchline that is paid off even further down the line.

What the director is able to do by simply having characters give each other a look, show their living situations, express their mannerisms, and have them actually fit into the narrative is remarkable. While some segments might feel more unnecessary than others, by the end we get a payoff that more than succeeds. There’s a lot of humor in here, a lot of mystery, and a very dark tone that really keeps you on the edge of your seat. Everything from the wardrobes, to the music, to the mapping of this community really make this feel like a true event that we are just dropped into the middle of.

Now, let’s talk about the good and the bad. The only thing I could see as being a bad thing is the breaking of the story into chapters with each character. What ends up happening is we do get some very creepy images, some great story beats and character development, but it does seem like as soon as we’re about to stumble onto something bigger we just cut and begin with someone else. At first glance, this feels almost like an edging or a tease, but upon further reflection this really just helps with the pacing and keeps the mystery going for the length of the film. So while I initially thought this would be my main critique against the film, I’ve really come around on it.

As for the good? Where do I really begin? The story is creepy and dark. There’s not a lot of actual scares in here, but the tone of the film really keeps you unsettled and lets the real moments of terror that happen really hit hard. This isn’t a movie with a lot of jump scares perse, but we do get lots of nightmarish imagery with rather simple things, such as a door opening and we just sit in silence for a solid 30 seconds – staring into absolute darkness – before something eventually comes out of it. This happens multiple times and really gives it almost a Lynchian vibe.

I am not even going to begin touching on where this film goes, but I absolutely agree that this movie has the most “what the fuck”s I’ve uttered all year. It’s dark, it’s silly, it’s fun, and it’s so satisfying for the level of mystery we get. Director Zach Cregger absolutely trusts his audience to put the pieces together themselves instead of spoon-feeding or over explaining everything to us. And in return, he just asks us to trust him that this will be an experience.

As always, I encourage you to go in open minded and avoiding reading or seeing anything more about it. I fear this will have a similar effect like ‘Longlegs’ did last year, where that film was so hyped to be the scariest thing of the year but never really delivered. This film almost has a similar style of marketing behind it, and I do worry that some audiences will walk in completely not tuned with the vibe this film is going for. But if you just want a fun, bonkers film, I cannot recommend this high enough.

Go see it before the mystery gets spoiled for you. You won’t believe what you’re seeing until it’s already happening.

5/5

“Weapons” is currently playing in theaters.

‘Til Next Time,
Mike Cleopatra