My quick rating – 7.5/10. Zach Cregger’s Weapons wastes no time in pulling the rug out from under you. At precisely 2:17 AM, every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class gets out of bed, walks downstairs, opens their front doors, and disappears into the night—never to return. The scene, narrated in unsettling fashion by Scarlett Sher, drops us directly into the nightmare without a shred of setup, and from there the film becomes less about what happened and more about how different people process it.
The story unfolds in chapters, each centering on a different perspective, slowly piecing together fragments of the mystery. Julia Garner leads as Justine, the class’s teacher, who immediately becomes the town’s prime suspect. It’s not exactly a warm welcome when your name tops the blame list, but Garner gives Justine an edge of haunted strength, playing her as someone frantically trying to hold herself together while the walls close in.
On the other side, Josh Brolin’s Archer is a grieving father whose son Matthew is among the vanished. While the rest of the town points fingers, Archer actually wants answers. Brolin brings a strong, heavy presence that balances out the hysteria around him. Then there’s Alden Ehrenreich as Paul, with his Tom Selleck moustache. He plays a cop (and Justine’s occasional “friend”) whose investigation leads him into some genuinely disturbing encounters—chief among them James, a local lowlife played by Austin Abrams. James stumbles into imagery so unsettling that it feels ripped straight from any parent’s nightmares, and his subplot is a highlight.
The film doesn’t stop there. Benedict Wong takes time away from Shang Chi and shows up as Marcus, a child services worker who takes a call that makes you want to unplug your phone forever, and young Cary Christopher plays Alex, the bullied classmate and the sole child who didn’t vanish. His presence shifts the story yet again, leading us toward an unnerving and strangely poetic conclusion. Amy Madigan deserves applause—her turn as Gladys steals every scene she’s in, slipping between moods and moments with a fluidity that keeps you guessing what she really knows.
What makes Weapons work is its structure. Cregger builds the tension by layering character stories like a sinister Jenga tower, each block making you more nervous that it’s all about to collapse. The film rewards patience, and while the hints are there from the beginning, the full picture only clicks into place in the final act.
If there’s a drawback, it’s the ending. The movie comes tantalizingly close to sticking a perfect landing but seems to hold back just a touch, as if afraid of fully committing to its boldest ideas. Even so, the finale is strong and memorable—it just left me wanting that last ounce of gut-punch.
Minor quibble aside, Weapons is one of the strongest horror-thrillers of the year, cementing Cregger as more than a one-hit wonder after Barbarian. It will be giving Bring Her Back a stab for favorite of the year, if I needed to pick one. Disturbing, layered, and meticulously crafted, it’s a film best experienced blind. Go in knowing only this: the kids disappeared. The rest? Let the movie handle it.
