Writer/director Zach Cregger’s debut film Barbarian was a moderate box office hit back in 2022, but effectively set the world of Film Twitter on fire and immediately made him a name to watch among genre fans. It’s been 3 years since then, and horror fans have been eagerly anticipating whatever he would do next. It’s rumored filmmaker Jordan Peele was so upset that his production company lost the bidding war to produce Cregger’s script Weapons, that he fired some of his executives who failed to purchase him the rights. Warner Bros./New Line Cinema allegedly paid $38 million to acquire the rights to Zach Cregger’s Weapons, and after having seen the film, it’s easy to see why all of this happened. 

One night in the town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, at exactly 2:17 am, all of the children in elementary school teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner)’s class, except one, got up out of bed, left their houses, went into the night with their arms outstretched like wings, ran into the darkness and never came back. We follow a number of people who are desperate to uncover what really happened to these children, including but not limited to a weary father (Josh Brolin) a troubled cop (Alden Ehrenreich), the school’s principal (Benedict Wong) and others.

Weapons is layered and dense. It’s a Russian nesting doll of mystery, one under another under another. There’s so much going on here, and it’s impossible to predict where this wild thing is going. There were several points over the course of this film where I was convinced I had a pretty clear idea of what was going to happen and the film kept proving me wrong. The structure of Cregger’s script unfolds like a mystery novel, broken up into chapters, all from the perspective of different characters. It does that thing where you see the same events unfolding from different perspectives and I always enjoy when a movie can get that right. And Weapons would fall apart entirely if Cregger’s script didn’t stick the landing, and it does without a doubt, but it also leaves you with so much to talk about after. This is excruciating, nail-biting, panic-attack-inducing stuff, and I can’t wait to see it again. 

I was also under the impression this would be focused mainly on Julia Garner and Josh Brolin’s characters. That’s what the ad campaign suggests. This is also not the case. They’re the first two characters we meet, and we do follow them to the end of the story, but they’re hardly the film’s headliners. In addition to Alden Ehrenreich’s cop and Benedict Wong’s school principal, we also have Euphoria’s Austin Abrams as a homeless drug addict who gets wrapped up in all this. And we have longtime character actress Amy Madigan giving one of the greatest genre performances I’ve seen in the last decade. And that’s all I want to tell you about that.

The filmmaking on display here shows growth over what Cregger displayed in Barbarian. There’s a striking confidence in Cregger’s storytelling and it’s hard for me to determine how he’s able to pull this off so well after only having made one film. He’s got a strong grip on what he wants to say with his script – Weapons is a clear and poignant allegory about school shootings, but it’s also somehow a crowd-pleasing gonzo, weirdo, ultraviolent horror film about grief and children in peril. On paper, there is no logical reason why this should work at all, let alone as well as it does. And the success of Weapons cements Zach Cregger’s reputation as one of horror’s most exciting filmmakers working today. Cinematographer Larkin Seiple’s camerawork is sleek and clinical in a David Fincher’s Zodiac kind of way. The score from Ryan and Hays Holladay, and Cregger himself, is sharp, inventive and intense. The production and costume design tell you a lot about the town in which this story takes place and the people who live there. 

Zach Cregger avoids just about every sophomore slump possible with Weapons. This is a bold, intense, horrifying film that will shake you to your core. As was the case with Barbarian, Cregger is also having a lot of fun with genre and audience expectations. I would see this one as quickly as you can with the biggest crowd possible. You don’t want anyone to spoil this for you, and by the time this review goes online it might already be too late, but there’s a reason I’m being vague when talking about plot details here. Relishing in the twists and the way everything unfolds here is absolutely the reason to go. Also, seeing a film this intense in a crowded theater so quiet you could hear a pin drop…there’s no feeling like it. However, I feel like this is a film people will be talking about and dissecting for a long time. Don’t be surprised if you Cregger’s screenplay nominated at the Oscars this year. Weapons is a breathless and terrifying, yet surprisingly funny horror film that sneaks up on you and will stick with you long after the house lights go up.