Posted in: Movies, New Line Cinema, Review, Warner Bros | Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Weapons is The Horrifying, Darkly Comic Horror Movie of the Year

Weapons is the horror movie of the moment, a paranoid, horrible, darkly funny, and ultimately cathartic allegory about life right now.

Published
by
|
Last updated
|
Comments

Article Summary

  • Weapons is a shocking, darkly comic horror movie exploring paranoia, fear, and small-town panic.
  • The story follows missing children, grief-stricken parents, and chaos that unravels a tight-knit community.
  • Director Zach Cregger crafts an allegory for modern anxieties, blending horror with sharp social commentary.
  • Weapons delivers unsettling thrills and cathartic humor, making it the must-see horror film of the year.

I didn't see the press screening of Weapons and went with a paying public, and that's the best way to experience Zach Clegger's second movie as writer-director. There was already buzz about it being shocking and unexpected, with some viewers freaking out when all hell broke loose, so I thought, "Challenge accepted!"

A silhouette of a child running down a dimly lit street at night, with streetlights illuminating the wet pavement.
Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. A scene from New Line Cinema's "Weapons," a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Gosh, it was fun! Cleggers dodged the Second Album Syndrome and delivered a follow-up to his sleeper hit Barbarian with an even more ambitious and go-for-broke. By Hollywood standards, Weapons is not only an original IP that's not a sequel, but a big swing in how far to take the shock of Horror. It begins with a child narrating a "true story" about a small town in Pennsylvania where seventeen grade school kids suddenly snuck out of their houses and ran out into the darkness, never to be seen again. Their parents reel in shock and grief when the police can't find any clues. The kids were all in the same class at school, and suspicion and blame immediately got aimed at their teacher (Julia Garner), who became a target for harassment, blame, and hate, particularly from Josh Brolin as the raging father of one of the missing kids. Things do not get better for everyone in a climate of fear, shock, and paranoia. The story is split into chapters that each follow a different character as they head, wittingly or not, towards the truth of what happens, and how to deal with it.

A student stands in a dimly lit school hallway, holding a binder, with various campaign posters on the walls advocating for different student candidates. The atmosphere conveys a sense of tension and anticipation.
© 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. JULIA GARNER as Justine in New Line Cinema's "Weapons," a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

It's really best for you to go into Weapons knowing either nothing or as little as possible about the plot. The fun is in watching how the story unfolds and what happens to the characters, and waiting to find out what caused the children to vanish and where they went. It's not really about jump scares – there might only be one in the entire movie. Intentionally or not, Weapons feels like the horror movie of the moment and the year. It can be read as an allegory for the terror, paranoia, and anxiety of living in America right now. When the reveal comes in the final third of the movie, all hell breaks loose, horrible things happen to everyone, and it's also hilarious in its horror. To say this is already risking overhyping the movie, and like all good cinematic experiences, you should see it for yourself and find out how you feel about it.

A man with gray hair and a serious expression stands before an audience, gesturing with his hand, in a brightly lit indoor setting. The background features a colorful bulletin board with visible educational materials.
Photo by Quantrell Colbert. JOSH BROLIN as Archer in New Line Cinema's "Weapons," a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Weapons works perfectly well as a mediation on every parent's nightmare of losing their child to the unknown and the resulting emotional and social fallout. However, it can also play on so many other feels and anxieties currently in the air that it becomes richer when you see that layer, and the reveal of the horror fits with the irrational, angry paranoia fueling that fear. Clegger said he wrote the script to channel his grief over the death of a friend and also explore the autobiographical memory of the terror and paranoia of living in an abusive alcoholic household. You don't need to know that to enjoy the movie on its own, but it only adds to the layers of complexity in the story: the personal, the universal, and even, ultimately, the political. It's a horror movie that's horrific, and if that's your thing, it's loads of nasty, horrible fun.

As an aside, Weapons might also become a hit in Japan and possibly Korea because they're much more used to this kind of narrative of a dark, disruptive, horrifyingly irrational, and malicious force wrecking the peace of a community. It's an apocalyptic allegory that's right up their alley.

Weapons is now out in theatres.

Weapons
A silhouette of a child running down a dimly lit street at night, with streetlights illuminating the wet pavement.
Review by Adi Tantimedh
8/10
A horror movie that starts out depicting every parent's nightmare of losing their child and the resulting fallout but is an allegory for the fear, paranoia and anxiety of life in America now, with a reveal so crazy it makes this a darkly funny, horrific but cathartic movie

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!

Adi TantimedhAbout Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
twitter
Comments will load 20 seconds after page. Click here to load them now.