Weapons (2025, directed by Zach Cregger) is going to be in many film critics’ top three films of the year. It is destined to be a classic.
Though this movie is at a disadvantage, coming on the heels of comic superhero blockbusters, Weapons should generate enough word-of-mouth—or even TikTok virality—for traction. It would be a shame if this film went by the wayside, considering the strong praise many critics have heaped on it. Director Cregger, known for his work in thriller and horror filmmaking, delivered a surprise hit with Barbarian (2022). This time, he offers more depth and simmering tension for a truly spectacular horror film.
The premise of the movie is deceptively simple: children go missing. One night, 17 children run out of their houses in a trance. The film takes its time laying out the clues and connecting threads that lead to the propulsion a horror movie truly needs to elevate into film canon.
Weapons has two things going for it: mastery and ambition. Cregger tells the story from the segmented points of view of different characters. This is similar to Robert Altman’s 1993 Short Cuts, wherein various characters’ stories unfold and ultimately lead to the culminating event of a violent California earthquake. The difference is that the earthquake is a central eventuality.
In Weapons, the common stakes of the characters are incidental, not eventual. This generates a fantastic tapestry of storytelling that shifts gears in time and space, depending on the point of view. It is brilliant and breathtaking filmmaking, much needed in this time of brain rot.
Discussing the reason for the title would spoil the film, or it may not be easily conveyed due to the script’s intricate nature. This film is a classic blend of American suburban terror and continental folk horror. It is paced in a way that suspends the need for explanations, though it remains enthralling enough to pull viewers through the unfolding sequences. If you are a fan of The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, or Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, you will find yourself in familiar but heightened territory with Weapons.
The cast is in good hands with Cregger, but Amy Madigan deserves all the flowers for her portrayal of Aunt Gladys, the pivotal character who holds the film’s weirdness together in a delicious brew of horror and disgust.
Cregger can use the crone figure to push body horror and test the audience’s tolerance for body fluids and jump scares. A good horror film has adequate twists, but a great one uses time itself as part of the horror.
The lingering shots and pauses are masterfully done, like a drip suspended at the mouth of a faucet before it falls. And such falls—such action from this movie! Running has always been an integral part of horror, but usually it is about running away from an entity. In this film, running into is the linchpin. The eventual collisions in this film are what make cinema art.
You may reach Chong Ardivilla at kartunistatonto@gmail.com or chonggo.bsky.social.
