Weapons movie review | Zach Cregger’s twisted thriller

Weapons(2025) movie poster—this is Zach Cregger’s wildest work to date.

So, I’m almost ashamed to admit he had planned to skip seeing Weapons in the theater. Nothing personal against director Zach Cregger or his work; I’ve been busy on a book tour recently to promote my short story collection, Show Me Where It Hurts. This one, I thought I’d catch on streaming later. But when people started buzzing about Weapons on social media, curiosity got the best of me.

Spoiler-free plot

Here’s an idea of how the story starts without revealing anything you won’t learn in the trailer. Weapons begins with a scene soaked in dread; seventeen children from the same classroom at school leave their homes in the middle of the night, disappearing into the darkness without a trace. Only one of the children in the class is spared from the horror, and he seemingly has no idea why. Suspicions fall upon the children’s teacher, played by Julia Garner, and the rest of the movie follows what happened to the children. It’s the kind of horror that sinks into your ribs, like a knife in the dark you never saw coming.

Stephen King loved it

Is it good? Yes, quite. Weapons is the second film by Cregger, who also wrote the script. He’s the mastermind behind Barbarian, one of the best, most original horror films from 2022. The chilling, chaptered game of hide-and-seek with children as pawns fascinates and thrills, as we investigate the mystery through the POVs of the main characters. Out of these, Josh Brolin delivers the finest performance, in a role originally written for Pedro Pasal, who couldn’t film due to a scheduling conflict. Brolin’s portrayal of benumbed sorrow is the film’s emotional center, steering us through the film’s slow burn as his obsessive need to find out what happened to his child sets him at odds with the local police. The films keeps us guessing as we follow each character’s thread, and just as each segment crescendos, the film cuts away to explore another character. It’s a master class on suspense that Hitchcock would envy. Hell, even Stephen King raved about the film. "WEAPONS: Confidently told, and very scary," he wrote on X. "I loved it."

You’re doing something right when you get a positive tweet from the master of modern horror, Stephen King

My opinion

Is it a perfect film? Not to me, anyway. Without revealing the movie’s biggest surprise, I was let down in the final act, in which the film’s—let’s just say, “monster”—makes its appearance. While genuinely spooky at first, the more we saw of said monster, the less scared I became. Although there’s plenty of action and at least one more twist before the film’s ending, the climax itself bordered on ludicrous. A few people in the audience laughed out loud, which was a real boner-killer for the tension that had been so expertly established through first two-thirds of the film. But balancing humor and horror isn’t easy, it’s something that was constantly on my mind as I was writing Show Me Where It Hurts. I love to see the combined emotions clashing against each other and I hope I’ve done that effectively in my own work.

Conclusion

That said, Cregger clearly knows what he’s doing. If the film’s #1 ranking at the box office for two weeks running is any indication, he’s on his way to becoming a modern master of horror cinema. The man’s got game, and I’m sure I’ll be first in line to see his version of Resident Evil, whenever he gets it wrapped up. For my money though, Weapons had a thrilling promise but never quite hit its target.

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Check out my collection, Show Me Where It Hurts on Amazon
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