The Stream: It’s not the scary movie you’re expecting.

The Big Screen: This movie is bursting with originality and humor.

The Final Bill: Weapons is a wild movie that’s unique, creepy and pretty funny all at once.

– Trip Fontaine
Director: Zach Cregger
Writers: Zach Cregger
Stars: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Amy Madigan, Benedict Wong
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: R for strong bloody violence and grisly images, language throughout, some sexual content and drug use
Runtime: 2 hours 2 minutes
Production Companies: New Line Cinema, Subconscious, Vertigo Entertainment, BoulderLight Pictures, Warner Bros.
Platform: In theaters August 8, 2025
Notable Trailers: The Roses, The Smashing Machine, Keeper, Him, The Strangers: Chapter 2, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Mortal Kombat II

What’s up, Streamers! Do you remember Barbarian (2022)? It was that weird horror/mystery movie about a young woman who goes to her Airbnb and finds that her accommodations have been double-booked by a handsome stranger. It was surprising and unpredictable. Well, Zach Cregger, the writer and director of that movie, has made a new horror/mystery movie with an equally strange premise called Weapons. In Weapons, seventeen children from one classroom leave their homes at 2:17 a.m. one night and disappear into the darkness. When Justine (Julia Garner), the teacher of that class, arrives the next morning, she finds only one child present for class. The community grapples for answers and fingers point to Justine as more strange things begin to occur. Creepy hijinks ensue.

Zach Cregger has taken his intriguing premise and built a strange and entertaining movie. The movies leans into its creepiness by using disturbing images and jumps scares to keep the audience on their toes. It is consistently unsettling, but it’s not necessarily scary. Cregger uses stark cinematography and propulsive score to enhance each mysterious scene and sequence. Once you figure out what’s happening, the movie becomes less scary, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still entertaining. However, what the movie may lose in scare, it makes up in funny moments. The best horror movies can make you shriek in fear and in laughter. Weapons deftly weaves its scares and humor.

This movie is also populated by some really good actors giving dynamic performances. Each character has their distinct characteristics that make them individually interesting. I particularly liked Benedict Wong, Alden Ehrenreich, and Amy Madigan in their diverse supporting performances. I would say more, but I don’t want to give too much away. I think this movie is a good companion piece to Barbarian as it is just as weird and unpredictable as that movie.

Ultimately, Weapons is a wildly entertaining movie that uses its initial premise to create a weird and unpredictable horror movie. While it may not be as scary as you might expect, it delivers on creepiness and will hold your attention to the very end with its off-kilter sense of humor. Grab a big box of popcorn and run like an airplane to the theater.