REVIEW: ‘Weapons’ Is Equal Parts Unsettling, Funny, And Folkloric

Zach Cregger‘s Barbarian shook the film world with its clever twists and propensity to disgust in its third act. Now, with Weapons (2025), the filmmaker is showing that he’s not a one-hit wonder but instead a director to look out for with a unique take on humor and horror.

Going into Weapons with limited information, like Cregger’s last film, is for the best. Simply, one night at 2:17 am, 17 children woke up and walked into the night. With no understanding as to how they vanished at exactly the same time, the only unifying feature is that they were all in the same class. Only one student, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), didn’t. 

With no answers, the angry parents and scared town turn their sights on the classroom’s teacher, Justine, but even that isn’t the right clue to follow. Executively Produced by Michelle Morrissey and Josh Brolin, Weapons stars Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan.

Weapons tells the same story through multiple characters, and it all works.

Weapons takes its time to set up the story from multiple angles. First, we see the perspective of Justine (Julia Garner), the teacher; an angry parent, Archer (Josh Brolin); a crappy cop, Paul (Alden Ehrenreich); the school’s principal, Marcus (Benedict Wong); and a bystander, James (Austin Abrams). While we do see one more take to end the film, I won’t spoil that.

Each of the characters we spend time with anchor their section of the story, and with stellar performances from all, there is not a single weak link in the film. This makes the narrative soar. While Weapons is very clearly a horror movie, the way that it uses traditional whodunnit perspectives to unravel its characters and a folkloric atmosphere makes it unique.

In film reviews, calling out the best performances is standard, but for Weapons, its cast is truly an ensemble. They all make each other better, their performances build on one another, but more importantly, each time we see them throughout the film, they change. There is a natural development that comes from understanding who they are and their perspective just a little more, layers being added that give depth to their parts in the larger story.

Pacing is what takes Weapons (2025) over the top.

That said, with her performance in Wolf Man and here, we need more of Julia Garner in horror. And of course, Benedict Wong gets the chance to escape the MCU and excels. As for the rest, genre film is their strong suit. Even the characters who exist to build dread, like Alex’s parents, stand out, and physical performances are allowed to reach the height of the movie’s leads.

Each subsequent vignette pulls more characters together, adds more perspective, and shows the audience what we have been missing. As much as Weapons is a horror film, its element of mystery keeps a whodunnit sense as you meet more of the characters, see into their lives, and how they each converge. More importantly, none of the vignettes overstay their welcome. This keeps the film’s pace perfect despite how many times it shifts, and how much the humor is injected into stressful situations.

Weapons’ humor is multifaceted in a way that always hits. There are one-liners, sure, but situational comedy, and even set dressing and costuming do some heavy lifting. While Barbarian showed audiences Cregger’s love for a good reveal, Weapons is all about walking the fine line between absurd and unsettling and understanding when that line should be erased altogether. 

Weapons has the perfect blend of humor and horror, both making each other stronger.

Still, the humor doesn’t overtake the tension. Even when you figure out what’s happening in the film, the way that the tension ramps up keeps the reveal well-earned. If there is a film that proves that you don’t have to be surprised with a reveal for the film to succeed, this is it. At the same time, Weapons holds back much of its deaths until the third act, the introductory narration provided by a child sets the stage and keeps you anticipating. 

That anticipation is what drives Weapons (2025). We’re told from the beginning that there were a series of weird deaths, and that looms over the film for the first two acts. The children disappeared in their Naruto-run glory, and that sets up the unease.

But the real kicker for the film is how often it sets up a shot to make you think one of the deaths is about to take place. When they don’t, you unclench and breathe a little easier. And when they finally do, it makes you let out an audible, “oh f__k.”

Discomfort and humor are the building blocks for Zach Cregger’s sophomore film.

 There isn’t anything truly shocking in Weapons, at least not in the way that will keep you up at night. But there doesn’t need to be. While many have come to see excessive violence as subversion and shock as necessary, this movie smartly develops each shocking moment to have weight. Weapons is a perfectly calculated snowball.

It starts with normal people trying to figure out an unnatural situation and the human consequences of that, angry parents, and a vilified teacher. And then over time, the sections of the mystery that become more grand, more absurd, more bloody, and the break from a crime story becomes sharper with each vignette. 

Weapons is the best horror film of the year. It made me laugh, it made me deeply uncomfortable, and that’s what makes this a film I plan to watch again. Violent, bloody, dark, and yet deeply funny, Zach Cregger is a filmmaker who isn’t abiding by any restraints and is proving that sometimes less can very much be more.

Weapons (2025) is in theaters everywhere now.