What if Zach Cregger’s Barbarian grew up, dabbled in ayahuasca (read: black magic), and decided to confront generational trauma through a chaotic blend of dread, gore, and midnight madness? That’s Weapons—Cregger’s most ambitious, genre-bending horror mystery yet, as unsettling as it is unexpectedly fun. The film opens with one of the eeriest sequences in recent memory: seventeen kids vanish into the night at exactly 2:17 AM, running into darkness with no clear guide. Only one, Alex, is left behind. As George Harrison’s Beware of Darkness plays, the tone is set—ominous and unshakable. From there, Weapons unravels into a disturbing fever dream, told in shifting chapters that leap between perspectives, bend timelines, and keep nerves on edge. Cregger avoids easy answers, instead twisting your stomach into knots while forcing your mind to catch up. The screenplay masterfully balances dialogue-heavy tension, bursts of sudden violence (brace yourself for the “peeler” scene), and darkly comic detours without losing focus. The cast is uniformly excellent. Julia Garner anchors the chaos with a performance that’s both feral and fragile. Josh Brolin delivers weight and menace as a grieving father you never fully trust. Alden Ehrenreich is jittery, unpredictable fun, and Amy Madigan nearly steals the spotlight with a grotesque yet hilarious turn in the final act. Visually, it’s a moody treat—when visible. Some sequences are lit like a haunted house during a power outage, which heightens the dread but occasionally frustrates. Still, Larkin Seiple’s cinematography lands when it counts, and Ryan and Hays Holladay’s score deepens the film’s hypnotic unease. Thematically, Weapons swings big—mob paranoia, blame culture, and the loss of childhood innocence to adult dysfunction. Not every thread ties up neatly, but the final 30 minutes deliver a delirious, blood-soaked climax that rewards the ride. Even when certain chapters meander, the tension never fully loosens. It’s a horror film where the feeling of “something’s coming” hangs thick, and when it finally does—BAM—it hits hard. In less capable hands, Weapons could have been a chaotic mess. Instead, it’s a confident, stylish, deranged horror story that confirms Cregger as one of the most daring voices in the genre today. Grotesque, unpredictable, darkly funny, and unafraid to push boundaries—this is horror at its most deliciously unhinged. Weapons hits theatres August 8, 2025.
