‘Weapons’ (2025) Flick Through Review - Worth The Hype
Zach Cregger was a creator and star of ‘The Whitest Kids U’Know’. If you’ve never heard of them, I don’t blame you; they were an American sketch comedy gang who made it to TV between 2007 and 2011 and had a few really good bits in the 60 episodes that were made before they were cancelled.
I only found out that that Zach Cregger, who wandered around with a gallon of PCP and laughed with his buddies, was this Zach Cregger after I watched 2022’s Barbarian. At some point I hope I can do a full write up about the suspense in the film because it is masterfully built up and the way that the audience is dragged out of the horror only to be plunged back in is fascinating. Go and watch Barbarian, please!
Going into Weapons, not a sequel to Barbarian thankfully, I was unsure if I should get my hopes up. I wondered if maybe Cregger had expended his good idea for a horror film and the trailers that gave very little away made me think of the very underwhelming Sinister films. Still, I took myself to the cinema to go and watch Weapons only a few days after release
Before I say any more, if you have any interest in seeing a thoughtful dark horror film with great character work, just watch Weapons. It’s real good.
So Weapons opens up with voice over filling us in on the framing of the film. I’m going to be pretty light on spoilers here - this is a Flick Through Review - but I will touch on some stuff that wasn’t in the trailer. On a normal weekday, all of the kids from one classroom at the local school get up at 02:17AM and run out of the houses and into the dark. All but one. The one child that didn’t go missing was kept out of the trailer, presumably to stop anybody guessing at the answers to the mystery. Then we get to meet our cast, seeing them only from the back of their heads as they are introduced and then swinging with the camera to see their faces as we learn about their unique circumstances. And those are my first two huge points of praise for Weapons. The cast and the camera.
The Cast
The cast here are astounding and none more so than Julia Garner who plays Justine Gandy, the teacher of the class of missing children. She cares way too much about her students, going above and beyond despite the conflict that causes with parents. She is a highly functioning alcoholic and is in a self-destructive on and off relationship with a married cop. And she is scared of what the vanishing kids means for her and what it means for the one remaining student. And it is entirely believable at every single turn. This is the first thing, other than the new Fantastic Four, that I have seen Garner in and I think she was my favourite part of the whole film. Her struggle was much too relatable and her self-destruction would have been guaranteed regardless if not for the events of the film. The other leading members of the cast - Josh Brolin as a father on the brink of a breakdown, Alden Ehrenreich as a cop and Cary Christopher as the last remaining child - are captivating and really sell the story. I even bought Benedict Wong as the fussy headteacher and Amy Madigan as the strange auntie who comes to stay. There are plenty of things that, alone, could tear apart the reality of the fiction here. The drug addict’s story, performed excellently by Austin Abrams as someone amusing and tragic all at once, leans into campy and is occasionally hilarious. Josh Brolin’s surreal dream sequence with a giant floating assault rifle is abstract enough that it could appear comical. But when it all comes together with the non-stop tension as we flick from person to person and slowly get a chance to piece it all together, it is artfully done.
The Camera
The cast was helped along by brilliant cinematography, courtesy of Larkin Seiple, who also shot Everything Everywhere All At Once, which I haven’t had a chance to see yet. I’m much more interested now, though. It feels as if we enter the narrative in the head of each of the characters when we enter their segment. Alex’s section gives us towering adults and insanely creepy stuff. Josh Brolin’s section comes with paranoia and violence. Julia Garner’s section feels like we are under threat constantly. And then for the big scares, we get these long, locked-off shots that go on long enough that we are forced to scan the frame for whatever is moving. Or, the threat is right there in the middle, and we have to watch as it lumbers closer while none of the characters have realised what we have. While this is effective in its own right, I also feel like this more specific take might be a little more controversial. Every shot of the dark is hard to see and a different movie would have probably lit some scenes a little more or brightened it up in post to make things clearer. But this movie was dark. Some moments were more viscerally haunting because I could only really make out outlines of some of what was going on. As soon as I was stripped of that ability to scan the wide shots for extra detail it felt claustrophobic and like we were trapped in something specific, narrowing our eyeline.
The Story
If it wasn’t already abundantly clear, I loved Weapons. I really liked Barbarian, but this is much better in my opinion. The complexity of our differing viewpoints that each contextualise the previous and slot inside like a Russian Nesting doll was something that the somewhat clunky voice-over didn’t really prep me for. But the story has meaning beyond the dark powers at play. It has lots to say about neglect and child abuse, and a teacher’s place in trying to fix it despite the system fighting back against it. There is some discussion of terminally ill family members too, and the impact that that can have on a tight-knit family structure that exists before the illness arrives. We see Alex’s parents forced to become puppets and harming themselves for the sick person, and Alex slowly sees his ordinary life shifting into something dark, dirty and devious. If enough regular Chogg.Blog people are interested in reading about it, Weapons would definitely be able to support a deep dive analysis into its meaning and the different things Cregger wants to say. For now, it’s enough to say that it is haunting and meaningful. And the ending is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, with more than one moment that is horrific and goes on so long that it becomes a parody of itself that really calls back to Cregger’s days in sketch comedy.
Whether you are a fan of spooky movies and crime thrillers or of gore and nightmares, Weapons is for you. And when the voice over returned for the final moment before the credits, I laughed out loud.
Thanks for reading this week’s Chogg.Blog! It helps me massively if you share this if you liked it, pass it on to someone who liked Weapons or who didn’t get a chance to see it yet. Let me know below or over on Instagram what you thought of the film and my tiny take here. Also, since you’re reading the little wrap-up here, go check out the Sonicomicast tab at the top of the website, or donate to me on KoFi through the About tab if you like what I’m doing enough to support me making much more! To get updated when something goes live, pop your email below, but until next time, BYE - <3
