Weapons review (2025)
Weapons is a creepy and at times delightfully unnerving as one of the decade’s most original horror thrillers.
Director/writer Zach Cregger sets up the premise beautifully. Seventeen third graders leave their homes at 2:17 a.m. with no trace as to why they all mysteriously took off and where they were going.
Naturally, suspicion falls on Alex (Cary Christopher) the one student who comes to school the next day, and classroom teacher Justine (Julia Garner, Fantastic Four: First Steps).
Justine bears the brunt of the misguided anger from parents, who need someone to lash out at since their house video cameras clearly show Justine is nowhere around their homes as their children speed off.
As Justine’s subplot plays out, she can’t be accused of always using the best judgement. She’s carrying on an affair with married police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich, Ironheart) and keeps ignoring her Principal Marcus’ (Benedict Wong, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) orders to stay away from Alex.
Garner is fantastic as the flawed but concerned teacher who wants to make sure the vanished children aren’t forgotten even if that means she’s got to find them herself.
Also working the case without much police assistance is Archer (Josh Brolin), a parent tormented by the thought he won’t see his son again. Brolin easily channels a gruff nature as Archer has run out of patience but not hope that he’ll find his son.
Cregger breaks Weapons into chapters, each focusing on a different character. Rather than play out the same story from various perspectives, Cregger has the chapters intersect at varying times. This helps avoid a sense of treading in place waiting on characters to get to a certain point before resuming the story.
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At two hours and nine minutes, Weapons starts to feel somewhat bloated in the second half. Maintaining the enthralling tension over two hours is a big ask for any thriller. Weapons would be more effective and terrifying with a half hour shaved off its run time. A leaner, tighter story is the only thing holding Weapons back from being a timeless genre classic.
The biggest offender are the chapters focusing on Paul and local druggie, James (Austin Abrams). Cutting these scenes not only would help Weapons flow smoother, but it would also eliminate the dark comedy subplots that don’t mesh well with the other sinister chapters. They’re certainly not bad scenes as they feature some very good performances and strong dialogue, but they don’t contribute enough to the core Weapons story when time restraints become an issue.
It’s not until the final chapter when the storylines start reaching a head. This is the chapter focusing on Alex with the tease of a much darker secret with his aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan). With paint roller applied makeup and an ill-fitting wig, Gladys cuts a memorably haunting visual.
Initially, Gladys starts randomly appearing in Archer and Justine’s nightmares before showing up in unannounced locations clearly exaggerating her attempts to convey a doddering, harmless woman. Madigan delivers a chilling performance in both Gladys’ charade guise and her actual, far more insidious personality. Horror movie
Cregger builds Weapons’ creepier moments well. He frequently shoots from behind the back of the focus character, which fosters an ominous and nerve-wrecking atmosphere. This is best illustrated when characters walk through hallways that Cregger’s claustrophobia-inducing perspective always seems to be just a bit longer and darker than it initially appears.
That’s not to suggest that daylight hours are a safe zone. Creeger establishes early on that uncomfortable and upsetting moments can just as easily occur during the daytime as well as night.
Cregger methodically sets the stage in the final act for the big payoff. The pacing here is deliberate, but effective in delivering a mostly satisfying conclusion. A certain character’s fate is fully rewarding, but the fallout felt like it warranted a more concrete resolution.
Weapons unleashes haunting intrigue, impactful performances, a beautifully staged creepy environment and one of the better villain payoffs for a horror/thriller in years.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Photo Credit: Warner Bros
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