Nelson Morales

‘Weapons’ review: This violent, clever horror mystery keeps you guessing

Article (news)

Fred Hawson

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1754461806478WPN-T1-0006.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="A scene from &#x27;Weapons.&#x27; Warner Bros. Pictures "/>A scene from &#x27;Weapons.&#x27; Warner Bros. Pictures  </div>One morning, Ms. Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) entered her classroom in Maybrook Elementary School as usual. However today, she was taken aback when she the room was practically empty. Out of the 18 students in her class, only one was present -- a shy little boy seated at the back row, named Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). When none of the other children showed up anymore, the police were called in to investigate their disturbing disappearance. School principal Andrew Marcus (Benedict Wong) tried his best to protect Justine, but some parents still think that she was responsible for the children going missing. The most aggressive among them was like Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), who was very distraught over the loss of his son Matthew (Luke Speakman). The police investigation also involved interviewing Alex, along with his father (Whitmer Thomas) and his visiting old aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan). This is the second horror film written and directed by Zach Cregger. His first one was &quot;Barbarian&quot; (2022), a low-budget film about an AirBnb in Detroit with a very dark past which had just been double-booked. The film earned a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes (RT) with 207 reviews, and was a commercial hit as well. Hence, this sophomore project of Cregger is very highly anticipated. Thus far, the film had already earned a 100% on RT with 19 reviews.Instead of the typical linear style, Cregger told his story from the points of view of different people -- from Justine, Archer, police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), drug junkie James (Austin Abrams), Marcus, and finally Alex. Therefore, we get the finer details of the story served in small installments, allowing the audience to just piece and solve the whole mystery together in our heads, leading up to one ultra-violent, yet very satisfying, climax.Cregger played with several types of horror tropes within this 128 minute-long film, from jerky jump scares to suspenseful tracking shots, to creepy nightmare scenarios. Body horror played a significant part in the fear factor with grotesque facial appearances, with mutilation scenes of escalating violence and gore. The build-up may have been a slowburn at first, but the finale sequence had everyone at the edge of their seats, while having fun along the way. This review was originally published in the author&#x27;s blog, “<a href="https://said-fred.blogspot.com/2025/08/review-of-weapons-disappeared-into-dark.html">Fred Said</a>.”

In a class of 18 kids, only one student shows up. What happens next is pure horror. From ‘Barbarian’ director Zach Cregger comes a brutal mystery with one of the most satisfying horror finales this year.

In a class of 18 kids, only one student shows up. What happens next is pure horror. From ‘Barbarian’ director Zach Cregger comes a brutal mystery with one of the most satisfying horror finales this year.