Cast: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Director: Zach Cregger
In Irish Cinemas: 8th August 2025
The promotional poster for Weapons, the latest horror entry from writer-director Zach Cregger, offers a chilling, deceptively simple image: a group of children sprinting down a dimly lit suburban street. The tagline, however, hints at something much darker:
“Last night at 2:17 a.m., every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark… and they never came back.”
At first glance, it reads like a familiar descent into eerie-child horror territory — Children of the Corn, Village of the Damned, maybe even The Midwich Cuckoos. But one look at the credits reveals a game-changing twist: the film is the brainchild of Zach Cregger, the creative force behind 2022’s breakout genre hit Barbarian. That debut wasn’t just an impressive calling card — it was one of the most original, nerve-shredding horror experiences in recent memory. So expectations for his sophomore feature were sky-high, and Weapons doesn’t disappoint. It obliterates.
Yes, the central mystery revolves around the unexplained disappearance of 17 third-graders from a single classroom. But much like Barbarian, Weapons is not what it first appears to be. What begins as a supernatural abduction mystery slowly unravels into a sprawling, character-driven psychological thriller. It’s a genre film, yes, but one that uses the conventions of horror as a vehicle to explore trauma, guilt, obsession, and the deeply buried secrets of a fractured community.
The brilliance of Weapons lies in its narrative architecture. Cregger structures the film as a sequence of interconnected chapters — each roughly 15 minutes long — named after a character tied, directly or obliquely, to the disappearance. This shifting perspective creates a jigsaw puzzle of emotional, psychological, and existential dread, as the audience pieces together what happened on that terrible night.
The first chapter centres on Justine Gandy (played with raw vulnerability by Julia Garner), the elementary school teacher whose students have vanished into thin air — all except one. Alex, portrayed by the eerily intuitive Cary Christopher, didn’t join his classmates in their mysterious exodus. But why? And why only Gandy’s class? These questions loom large, with no easy answers.
As Justine becomes the public face of the crisis, she’s besieged by angry parents, school administrators, and a growing tide of suspicion. Her personal life, already a mess, is no sanctuary — she’s in an affair with local cop Paul (a fantastic Alden Ehrenreich), who is very much married. That fact becomes explosively public in a supermarket confrontation with his wife (played with ferocity by June Diane Raphael), leaving Justine even more exposed. Her desperate search for answers takes her to a neighbourhood house with windows blacked out by newspaper — inside, she sees a couple sitting in eerie silence, eyes glazed over, like sleepwalkers trapped in a waking nightmare. It’s the kind of visual Cregger excels at: unsettling without explanation.
Each chapter adds a new piece to the puzzle — and new emotional stakes. Ehrenreich’s Paul, already haunted by his failures, becomes entangled with James (Austin Abrams), a twitchy, erratic drug addict who believes he can cash in on the $50,000 reward for information. Their fates become intertwined, leading back to that same haunting house. Abrams’ performance is a revelation: deeply sad, darkly funny, and completely unpredictable. He’s not just a supporting player — he’s a chaotic wildcard the film wisely lets loose at just the right time.
We then meet Archer (Josh Brolin, also a producer), the grief-stricken father of one of the missing kids, who practically commandeers the investigation. His anguish is volcanic, yet he maintains a commanding presence that gives the film an emotional anchor. Elsewhere, Marcus (Benedict Wong), the school principal, tries to hold together an unravelling community — but later reappears in a drastically different context that recasts everything we thought we knew about him.
And then there’s Alex — the one child who didn’t vanish — whose home life initially seems stable. But a visit from his eccentric Aunt Gladys (a completely unrecognisable and riotously brilliant Amy Madigan) throws everything into disarray. Clad in a garish red wig and marching to the beat of her drum, Gladys could have been a one-note oddball. But Madigan turns her into a scene-stealing force of nature: both hilarious and unsettling. She’s the kind of character you can’t take your eyes off — and might not want to turn your back on.
While Barbarian had a scrappy, indie-house-of-horrors vibe, Weapons feels like a full-blown evolution. The scope is bigger, the ambition bolder, and the execution razor-sharp. Cinematographer Larkin Seiple (known for Everything Everywhere All At Once) delivers crisp, immersive visuals that will no doubt pop on IMAX screens. At the same time, editor Joe Murphy expertly stitches together this mosaic of fractured narratives into something coherent, compelling, and chilling.
There’s even a sly cameo from Barbarian star Justin Long, which acts as both a wink to fans and a reminder of Cregger’s signature tonal dexterity — horror, comedy, absurdity, and pathos all rolled into one.
The ensemble cast is uniformly strong. Garner delivers a deeply human performance as a woman cracking under pressure, while Ehrenreich continues his career resurgence with one of his most grounded turns to date. Brolin, meanwhile, brings gravitas and a raw emotional core to Archer, making his pain deeply felt without descending into melodrama. Wong adds complexity to a morally ambiguous character, and young Christopher sidesteps the usual child-actor clichés with a refreshingly subdued performance.
But it’s Abrams and Madigan who leave the biggest impressions. Abrams, fresh off Euphoria and the upcoming Wolfs, is quickly becoming one of the most interesting young actors working today. His James is a tragic figure — part comic relief, part harbinger of doom. And Madigan? She’s an absolute knockout. You may not recognise her at first, but by the time the credits roll, she’ll be burned into your brain.
With Weapons, Zach Cregger doesn’t just avoid the sophomore slump — he levels up in nearly every respect. It’s more intelligent, more ambitious, and arguably even more unsettling than Barbarian. What could’ve been a straightforward genre piece becomes something richer: a character study, a mystery, a commentary on communal fear, and yes — a damn good horror film.
To reveal more would be unfair. Weapons is a film best experienced blind, one chapter at a time, letting the full weight of its revelations, performances, and atmosphere creep under your skin. At over two hours, it demands patience — but rewards it tenfold.
In a year already brimming with inventive horror (including BoulderLight Pictures’ other standout, Companion), Weapons stands tall as a haunting, expertly assembled tale of darkness that doesn’t just lurk in the shadows — it lives right next door.
Overall: 8.5/10
Movie Reviewer
