Weapons (2025) Review

Zach Cregger tackles the question “why?” in his new movie Weapons. His answer: “why not?”

In the last week, Cody and Kait watched Weapons separately, then wrote this review together, which starts with a non-spoiler review and has a section at the end containing spoilers. 

We both have very similar takes on this film, mainly that we both enjoyed it! It’s not a surprise, either, because it’s doing really well in the box office right now. It currently holds the biggest opening Monday for a horror film in cinema history, beating out the Sixth Sense. Its success has allowed Warner Bros to become the first studio ever to have 6 films in a row have openings higher than $40 million. 

We loved how this movie looked – the cinematography was stunning, its use of movement and color was great. It felt very grounded despite other elements of the story straying from any sense of realism. The main themes and how they intersected were presented in a unique way that held our attention and had us begging for answers. 

The main answer that we sought after was the backbone of the film. After all but one child in a third-grade classroom disappears into the night at 2:17am, their teacher Justine, played by Julia Garner, is flooded with guilt and questions from a community desperate to know what happened to their children. Garner does a brilliant job portraying a societal outcast who strives to be a perfect teacher but is more importantly an imperfect person.

The entire cast provided great performances that are worth highlighting. Archer, a grieving father played by Josh Brolin, is the heart of the film. While other parents in this town want to distance themselves from the event and accept the disappearance of their children, he takes a different path. His resistance to moving on in life without answers to the tragedy propels him into a vengeful obsession with Justine. Despite the segmented structuring, his story felt like the leading string of the film that tied everything together. We would be remiss not to mention Cary Christopher’s portrayal of Alex, the lone remaining child in Justine’s classroom, who at nine years old delivers such a complex and emotional performance, and Amy Madigan’s portrayal Gladys, a role so well acted so well that it leaves you terrified of the human behind the character. 

Weapons attempts to tackle several issues, but doesn’t fully commit to a single idea. The themes, while intriguing, don’t get fleshed out as much as we would have liked them to. Similarly, the structure of the film highlights the different perspectives of a community in grief, but these segments don’t all quite pay off by the time the credits roll. 

SPOILER WARNING: 

Despite our appreciation for the film, there were some gaps in the execution of the themes it tried to deliver. 

A story about a community’s way of coping in the wake of a tragic event leads to different perspectives on isolation and longing for someone to just reach out and help. Cregger tackles several issues including school shootings, drug abuse, neglect, police brutality, and multi-generational relations. If that seems like a lot, that’s because it was. Weapons spends its 128 minute runtime jumping between these subjects yet rarely explores any singular issue deeply. 

With that runtime, the characters that we spend the movie getting to know don’t exactly get a conclusion. The opening monologue implied that there would be a closing one, but when it came, the movie ended abruptly as soon as the ghost story-esque narrator stopped info dumping. This ending felt quite unsatisfying considering the large scope of the film’s themes. It also didn’t focus on the children that were involved in the mystery, either, which contributed to that “oh, it’s over?” feeling. 

The structural concept of the movie is interesting, but again, it comes down to execution. We don’t see Gladys in all her glory until about the midpoint, if not after it. And by the time Gladys properly appears in the film, it was somewhat easy to piece together what was happening. Her presence was not necessarily solidified as it jumped from powdery white faced clown to quirky elderly woman, though perhaps her reverse aging is reason enough for the change. To us, the audience should have a general idea of what’s happening, so Gladys’ introduction shows the how of what happened, but it might’ve taken a little too long in terms of the pacing of the film.

Paul, the cop, and James’ stories didn’t feel as necessary to us in the grand scheme of things. While they do shine light on and give voice to other societal issues, they don’t contribute to the central themes surrounding the children. Having their chapters taken out wouldn’t affect the movie that much, other than filling you in on Gladys’ final victims. They were far from the most unnecessary inclusion, though, in comparison to the machine gun that hovered in the sky during Archer’s dream. We found that it could have been more impactful if it delivered a greater purpose to the story, but it ended up coming off as incredibly on the nose and out of place.

We have a great amount of appreciation for Alex’s story arc – a classroom outcast that is forced into an unbelievably tough circumstance for a child just nine years old. The misunderstood hero was arguably the main puzzle piece to the entire film and his scenes matched that intensity. 

The film’s ending, a chase scene comparable to the likes of A Hard Day’s Night and Multiple Maniacs, is a must-see conclusion presented in the humorous style that Cregger is quickly becoming revered for.

Weapons is certainly a film worth watching. Zach Cregger’s larger than life concept invites moviegoers interested in the occult, political commentary, and classic horror flick jumpscares as he heads back down into the basement. While neither of us feel that this film reaches the incredible peaks of Barbarian, it is inarguably another worthwhile entry in Cregger’s filmography. 

Kait’s rating: 4 / 5

Cody’s rating: 3.5 / 5