Weapons (2025)

I didn’t much care for Zach Cregger’s first film BARBARIAN, his 2022 thriller about a young woman’s terrifying night at an AirBNB; I recall that in that review I dismissed the film but not the director, noting that he had a good eye and a sure-hand as a screenwriter – I looked forward to his next film.

Well, here it is, and I’m happy to say that it is kinda great.  WEAPONS is a grisly stomach-churning horror mystery that sets up a weird scenario in which 17 suburban school children disappear into the night, bringing a scandalous hell down on the head of their third-grade teacher played by Julia Garner who becomes the town pariah.  She, and a young student are the only ones from her class who didn’t disappear that night and the parents of those children demand answers.

But this is not a tight drama about missing children.  This is a horror movie and the pieces of the mystery are laid out in a very creative narrative that offers differing points of view from several different characters all leading to a stomach-turning final act which, while it was the excessively violent gave me one of the funniest images in any movie I’ve seen in five years – I wouldn’t dare spoil.  In fact, there is a lot to give away here, so I’ll put a sock in it.

I was caught up in this mystery and of you can stomach all of the butchery and gory effects, then I think you’ll love it.  What makes it work best, I think, is a wonderful supporting performance by Amy Madigan as an old woman who holds the key to the mystery.  Her character is so evil and so over-the-top that she brings the whole movie together.  Her performance has already gathered some critics awards, a Golden Globe nomination, a nod from the Screen Actors Guild and she is predicted to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars.  I hope she gets it.  I liked her.  I liked the movie.