Weapons Review

2025 has been an incredible time for horror so far, and yet, in the face of such stiff competition, Zach Cregger’s Weapons stood out for many as the most-anticipated of the year. If the film didn’t draw in public appeal with its sinister, indistinct advertising campaign, then the movie’s record-setting reception upon release certainly did. Weapons opened to a jaw-dropping 100% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and though the score has now slightly dwindled to 96%, it remains the highest-rated horror movie of the 2020’s so far.

This, in turn, put a huge weight on the shoulders of Weapons, a film destined to become a cult classic, and only the second outing for director Zach Cregger in the horror genre, his last feature film being 2022’s Barbarian. Suddenly, all eyes are on Weapons, and while it’s great that such a strong movie is receiving such boisterous support, I do worry that this insurmountable fanfare will leave Weapons in a position where it is doomed to disappoint the general public. Time to talk about all of this and more – with spoilers ahead, let’s get into our Weapons review.

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Weapons Review

Image by Warner Bros. Pictures

When you have a movie as hyped-up as Weapons, I think it’s important to try and moderate your expectations, as difficult as that may be. The trailers for Weapons were extremely vague – all we knew was that seventeen children fled from their homes in the middle of the night, and were never seen again. Following up such murky advertising with universal critical acclaim is a sure-fire way to put audiences in seats. However, when it comes to mystery movies like Weapons, such a timeline can also be a recipe for disaster. No matter how Weapons was resolved, if at all, it was never going to exceed, or even meet, the expectations that viewers set for it.

The baseline idea behind Weapons is that it is a missing-person movie, and in this genre, the film excels. The mystery behind the children’s disappearance is compelling, and the execution of their initial departure in the movie’s opening scene is haunting. However, I think it would be disingenuous to name Weapons a ‘mystery’ movie, based solely on how obvious the culprit behind the disappearance is as soon as we first see them. As much as Weapons succeeds as a horror movie, it fails as a mystery movie, particularly when the location of the missing children is explicitly revealed around an hour into the film. While Weapons is a very strong film in many respects, it is far from a masterfully-structured, edge-of-your-seat mystery thriller. In an interview with Fandango, Cregger revealed that he wrote a good chunk of the film before even considering what the truth behind the mystery would be, and to the movie’s deficit, I think that lack of thinking-ahead does leak through the structure of the plot.

However, in many ways, the structure of Weapons is exactly what makes it such a unique film. Though the trailers would have you believe that this movie focuses heavily on Julia Garner’s Justine, the teacher of the class of students that disappear, it actually cycles through many different perspectives throughout its runtime, with a title screen announcing what character will take centre-stage next. Some sections are certainly more entertaining than others, but this style keeps Weapons feeling fresh, despite taking place over quite a short period of time. Unfortunately, the scene-switching can sometimes kill certain moments of heightened momentum, but ultimately, Weapons’ structure allows each character involved to feel fleshed-out, and their role in the conclusion to be well understood.

Image by Warner Bros. Pictures

Using different characters’ experiences to explore the events of Weapons also allows the movie to play around with different tones and themes extremely well. Marcus and Alex’s sections in particular host some of Weapons’ most memorable and haunting scenes, while the time we spend with James, a homeless drug addict, give much more levity to the situation unfolding. In particular, having James be the one to formally find Alex’s catatonic parents in their home while burgling it adding a sense of humour to what would likely have been a much more terrifying moment had any of the other main characters found them first. Seeing the story of Weapons unfold from multiple perspectives served to, above all else, make the film feel real. As otherworldly as the outcome was eventually revealed to be, seeing it approached through all sorts of different personalities kept the experience grounded, and uniquely human.

The natural feeling of Weapons is also aided in large part by the performances of its main cast, all of whom are incredible here. These characters will all stick with me for a while after watching this movie, which is a real feat in a movie so heavily shrouded in mystery, where the focus is not exactly on character-building, but rather, solving a problem. Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, and Austin Abrams are all amazing in this movie, with all of their characters feeling like real people, with strengths and weaknesses as human beings. However, special praise should be reserved for Benedict Wong, Cary Christopher, and in particular, Amy Madigan, who take Weapons to a new level with their performances. I have never seen Madigan take on a character quite like this before, and what she brings to the role is truly irreplaceable.

Though the characters of Weapons are extremely strong, there are a few unnecessary scenes that I think could have cut down the runtime of the movie overall, and made it all feel a little more concise. In particular, the whole storyline involving Paul, Paul’s wife Donna, and Paul’s complex relationship with Justine could have been removed completely from the narrative, and I don’t think it would have affected anything all that much. I was never bored by any of this, which is a testament to Weapons’ excellent pacing, but by the time the movie had ended, I had forgotten it was ever even a part of this overall narrative. In fact, when Donna attacks Justine in the gas station, I had assumed it was one of the children’s parents lashing out at her for their disappearance – the thought of Paul’s wife never crossed my mind.

Image by Warner Bros. Pictures

Unfortunately, a few unnecessary story beats are not the only issue I had with Weapons. To me, the narrative has a tendency to create small plot holes that it dances around as it asks the viewer to suspend disbelief, and though I usually would for a horror film, the mystery at the centre of Weapons asks its viewers to pay attention to every little detail, which leads me to these problems. If all of the children were caught on camera running into the night, why were subsequent cameras further in the direction they ran never checked? Why was Alex’s arrival at school as the sole child who didn’t disappear from Justine’s class not a bigger red flag for police and school staff alike? Why did Gladys even let Alex go to school if his presence there was such a risk for her being discovered? Why did Justine dismiss Alex’s extremely strange behaviour in the days leading up to the disappearance? These issues are small, and it’s easy to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the ride that Weapons takes you on, but they are noticeable, and can often be frustrating when you catch them in a movie that is so well-made otherwise.

Now though, it’s time to answer the big question when it comes to horror movies – is it scary? Well, I wouldn’t say that Weapons is terrifying, though it was littered with way more jumpscares than I was expecting. Ultimately, the horror of Weapons comes from how inherently evil the premise is, as well as how creepy the entire vibe of the movie is. This film is very well-shot, and this only adds to the creep factor. There are also more than a handful of scenes that are notably disturbing, and there is a lot more gore here than I was expecting (though Cregger did direct Barbarian, so this doesn’t come completely out of the blue). In particular, the entire Marcus section, as well as the ending of the movie, are completely blood-soaked, so prepare yourself for that if you go into this expecting just a mystery-thriller. There’s a lot more horror involved in this movie than you may think.

In many ways, Weapons reminds me of Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs, from its cryptic advertising, to the huge hype surrounding its release, and furthermore, to its seemingly grounded story taking a supernatural twist. I feel the same way about the mystic in Weapons as I did in Longlegs – pretty meh. I don’t love when witchcraft and voodoo is used to explain away the impossible elements of a mystery, and ultimately, that’s all that Weapons is. The kids ran out because they were possessed by a witch. Alex’s parents are catatonic because they are possessed by a witch. Much like Longlegs put everything down to ‘Satan’, Weapons ends up resolving its mystery using an entirely new character, who we know is the culprit as soon as we see her, and she’s a witch. Her witchcraft is very well-handled, and it’s honestly one of the more believable portrayals of witchcraft that I’ve seen in horror movies, but at the end of the day, magic is what Weapons is all about, which I think some people will find disappointing as the ultimate answer to its mystery.

Image by Warner Bros. Pictures

This whole element of Weapons also reminded me of another, phenomenal horror movie to release this year, Bring Her Back. While personally I think Bring Her Back is the better film out of these two, I think the difference in my enjoyment of their portrayal of witchcraft and possession comes from the scale of the story. Bring Her Back was focused on one household, one woman trying to perform a ritual on one child. Weapons takes these ideas of possession and witchcraft, and spreads them out across a whole town, which makes the whole thing feel huge in scale, and also makes Gladys feel like a fairly unstoppable, almost comic-book level villain.

Ultimately, I think Weapons is a very enjoyable movie, home to some huge ideas. So, as this review nears its end, let’s talk a little about this movie’s main point of discussion – metaphor. We know that this is a metaphor for something, but what that metaphor is has been debated since this movie’s release. Many people have pointed towards the movie is a metaphor for school shootings – the disappearance of an entire class, the title of the movie, and of course the scene where Josh Brolin stares at a giant assault rifle in the sky, which is quite a heavy-handed representation if this is, in fact, what Cregger was going for. I’ve also seen very interesting discussions online about how Weapons may be a metaphor for sexual abuse, with Alex’s aunt coming into his home, telling him not to tell any adults about what she has done, leading to more kids being harmed in the process. I think no matter how you look at the specifics, Weapons is telling a story of tragedy towards children, and how the wider community deals with that. In many ways, I hope Cregger never confirms what was in his mind when he went about crafting the story. The many interpretations only serve to make Weapons feel all the more sinister.

Overall, I think that Weapons is a movie with some huge ideas, and ultimately, they’re handled very well. With all of these characters involved, and throwing witchcraft into the mix, it would have been easy to lose control of the narrative, but the movie is easy to follow, thrilling, and though the mystery may not satisfy all of its viewers, I think that horror fans will be pleased enough with an ending that was destined to disappoint, no matter what Cregger could have brought to the table. What did you think of Weapons? Be sure to let us know, and thanks for reading!

See also: M3GAN 2.0 Review

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Where to Watch Weapons?

Image by Warner Bros. Pictures

Weapons released in theatres on August 8, 2025. No date has been announced yet for a streaming debut, but we’ll keep you posted!

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