Tag: Zach Cregger

Weapons Review: A Creepy and Hilarious Mystery.

2025 has been quite the year for horror movies, with the likes of Sinners, 28 Years Later, and now Zach Cregger’s Weapons.
I remember the first piece of promotional material I saw for this film.
It was an over two-hour long video of security footage showing seventeen kids running from their homes and into the night, their arms spread out like airplanes, never to be seen again.
The footage creeped me out and made me wonder what the film would be like.
Then the first trailer floored me, along with most of the internet.
If anyone wants to know how to make a good horror movie trailer, I will point them to that first trailer.
It does an incredible job of building suspense for the film, without telling the audience what is going to happen. 

“Matthew, where are you?” Josh Brolin’s Archer states, showcasing the mystery of the film.

From there, I became obsessed, watching every piece of promotional material I could find about this movie.
Now, after months of waiting, I have finally seen Weapons.
Did it live up to the hype?
Well, yes, but, much like 28 Years Later, not in the way I thought it would.
The trailers made this movie look horrifying and, while I would argue that a lot of it is still pretty disturbing, Weapons is also much funnier than I expected.
I was anticipating some humor.
After all, Zach Creggor’s previous horror film, Barbarian, had a lot of comedy.
But even I was surprised by the amount of humor in this movie.
This is certainly not a bad thing because a lot of the humor is very good. 

And that is not to sell the horror short, either.

But I am getting ahead of myself.
As I said earlier, Weapons centers around the events following the disappearance of seventeen kids from the same classroom.
The film divides itself into various chapters, depicting different characters’ reactions to the tragedy.
We follow the kids’ teacher Justine (Julia Garner), grieving father Archer (Josh Brolin), police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), drug addict James (Austin Abrams), school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), and Alex (Cary Christopher), the only kid in the class who did not go missing.

Among all of the characters, Julia Garner’s Justine is the lightning rod for suspicion.

Each chapter, with one exception, uncovers part of the mystery, building up to where the storylines collide in an intense and highly cathartic climax.
Seriously, the ending is incredibly satisfying.
It got a lot of laughs and cheers in my theatre, along with quite a few groans of disgust.
The ending mixes perfectly with Weapons’ blend of horror and comedy.
There were quite a few jump scares which got me good, and plenty of unnerving scenes, supported by great cinematography.
What helps sell the horror and humor are the actor’s performances.
If I had to choose who my favorites were, I would say Austin Abrams is fantastic as James, and Amy Madigan may just steal the whole thing with her performance.

Abrams probably gives the best performance of the main POV characters.

That being said, what about the ultimate explanation of why the kids went missing?
Is that satisfying?
For me, it definitely was, but I can see this being a swing and a miss for some viewers.
Another potential issue is that there is some imagery that seems to be there solely for symbolism’s sake, rather than tying into the actual plot.
This may cause some to wonder what the point of these things happening are in the story.
However, although I could see these being issues for others, they were not for me.
Personally, my biggest problem with Weapons is that one of the chapters, the one centering around Paul, did not really seem necessary.
It felt like Justine and James’ chapters explained everything there was to know about him, and his chapter did not have anything to do with the mystery like the other characters.

Paul’s part of the story could have been skipped, to be honest.

That being said, I certainly did not hate his chapter.
It just felt like if you removed it, very little in the plot would change.
Paul would still end up where he needed to be for the climax.
Other than that, though, Weapons is a blast.
It has fun jump scares, creepy imagery, great performances, and an ending which mixes comedy and horror excellently.
As a certain character says in this movie, “Are you watching?”

Barbarian: A Prelude Review to Weapons.

Months ago, advertisements for Zach Cregger’s latest movie Weapons began dropping, and I quickly became obsessed.
The trailers did a perfect job of intriguing me, without telling me too much.
So, with the film releasing in a week’s time, I decided that the perfect way to prepare myself was to finally sit down and watch Cregger’s first horror film, Barbarian.
I had heard of Barbarian when it first released, along with the praise the movie was getting, but I had never watched it before.
After having seen it, I can say that it is a fun movie, which got me even more excited for Weapons. 

Since the movie has been out for a few years, I will be discussing spoilers in this review.

The movie follows Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell), a woman who books an Airbnb, only to discover a man named Keith (Bill Skarsgård) has been booked in at the same time.
Forced to share a home with him, Tess quickly becomes suspicious, not only of Keith but of the secrets the house may be hiding.
The first half of the movie does a great job building tension, as the audience are left to wonder if Keith is the threat Tess faces or something else. 
This tension builds up masterfully to reveal of the Mother (Matthew Patrick Davis), a giant, naked, inbred woman, who brutally murders Keith and takes Tess hostage, wanting the woman to be her baby.
I had heard of this reveal before watching the movie, but I can still imagine how shocking it must have been for many going into this movie blind, expecting Keith to be the bad guy, only for it to turn out to be an incest monster.

Casting Skarsgård to play this role served as the perfect misdirect.

Speaking of bad guys, it is after Tess’ capture that we meet A.J (Justin Long), an actor who is exactly the kind of guy Tess was worried Keith would turn out to be.
Fleeing to the Airbnb to escape allegations of sexual assault, A.J quickly finds himself drawn into the same horror Tess is facing, albeit in a much more comedic way.
This makes sense given Cregger’s history as a comedian, making him similar to other directors who went from comedy to horror, like Jordan Peele.
The second half of Barbarian is much campier than the first, but it is thankfully the fun kind of campy, as both Tess and A.J are relentlessly pursued by the Mother.

Justin Long brings a lot of welcome comedy to the film.

Escaping to a water tower, A.J attempts to sacrifice Tess to save himself, only for the Mother to rescue her in a moment that I unfortunately found to be unintentionally comedic.
Really, though, that is my only big criticism of the film.
Otherwise, it’s a lot of fun, especially the ending.
Seeing A.J get his eyes gouged out by the Mother was great karma, and I ended up actually feeling sorry for the Mother at the end.
She never asked to be born a monster.
In the end, all she wanted was a baby to love and care for, and Tess had to kill her to save herself.
It honestly is a credit to Zach Cregger that he made me feel sorry for the giant, naked, incest monster.

Wow, that is a sentence I never thought I would say.

In the end, Barbarian definitely got me more excited for Weapons.
It has an intense first half, a fun and campy second, and a surprisingly sad ending.
I have already booked a ticket to see Weapons the day it releases, and I hope it lives up to expectations.