Weapons: Horror with Heart
by Jasmine Edwards
Weapons (2025) is a nightmare. Directed by Zach Cregger, who impressed audiences with his debut horror release Barbarian (2022), the film puts a spin on both a child and parent’s worst fear: an unexplained disappearance. Even for people without kids, Amber Alerts induce heart palpitations, so think of Weapons as that feeling spread over a 2 hour and 8 minute runtime. It is inescapable grief, an inability to admit defeat, and the perils and paranoia of a stranger in your midst.
Intense and introspective, Weapons starts with an unseen and unnamed young narrator introducing a series of strange deaths and events in their hometown. The dread creeps in as we bear witness to the vanishing of 17 children. It happens overnight and nobody knows who to blame. Anger and resentment simmer, adding another scary sensation to an already unsettling film.
Weapons’ brilliant pacing and nonlinear narrative keep that tension exquisitely taut. We follow various characters who are involved in or investigating the children’s coordinated disappearances. This connective tissue allows the audience to take part in solving the mystery. The story leads us right up to pivotal moments in each individual’s point of view before ripping us away to an earlier scene in someone else’s eyes. Each of them attempts to resolve their own personal problems while encountering a strange or scary entity. Yet nobody gets close to the truth of the kids’ disappearance for a long time.
No one, that is, except for a quiet third grader and an unhoused man suffering from opioid dependency. Two characters on the fringes of society, they’re sidelined in their own lives, bullied by peers or police. But by existing in these smaller or secluded spaces, they’re able to experience what others cannot see or will not accept. Sadly, yet realistically, few other characters pay enough attention, resulting in the cruelest of dramatic ironies that succeed in making your pulse pound even harder and your heart bleed—if it isn’t too busy hammering after all those frightening figures and gory action sequences.
My major complaint about the film is how often the imagery pushes and pulls us in different directions. In order to obscure the villain’s identity, Weapons throws any and all available options our way. Could it be creepy clowns? Demons? Maybe parasites, magic, mind control, or outer space invaders? Between brainless, scissor-wielding adults, bright red hair, and cannibalistic urges, the possibilities are a little too endless. I enjoy being dragged along for the ride, but I don’t like useless confusion and suspense that solely serves to set up another jumpscare.
I also wish that a film called Weapons, with its use of assault rifle symbolism, touched a bit on gun violence in schools. It’s a topical conversation, and one that would work well within horror. After all, is there anything scarier than what our youth currently face in what should be the safest space for their bodies and minds? The real monsters are whoever chooses to prey on that innocence. While Weapons achieves that messaging, it does so without taking the risk of commenting on, well, actual weapons.
Overall, Weapons will give you a great theater experience. You’ll laugh, you’ll scream. Comedy and horror go hand in hand with tension and release, so look forward to plenty of that. I just wish the resolution was more satisfying, because in the end, they picked a monster and motivation that didn’t necessarily suit how otherwise unique the story is.