On the Screen: ‘Weapons’ a thoughtful horror set to American tragedy

Published 2:30 pm Thursday, August 14, 2025

Director Zach Cregger said this month that when he started writing “Weapons” he hadn’t figured out what it was about yet. What he started with was only a premise — all the kids in one classroom in one elementary school walk out of their houses and into the night and are never seen again.

It’s a killer premise.

The film picks up in Maybrook, a quintessential American town, a couple of months after 17 children disappeared. The film is slowly paced and has an unusual, non-linear structure that deliberately unfurls its narrative, mystery and frights while shifting to explore the perspective and experience of different people. Of course, there are answers to the questions being asked, but that’s not what “Weapons” is about.

The film centers on Julia Garner’s Justine Gandy, a teacher blamed by her community for her failure to protect the missing children — every kid who disappeared was in her classroom — as well as Josh Brolin as Archer Graff, a grieving father who was too scared to tell his son that he loved him, and Cary Christoper as Alex Lily, the only child from Justine’s class who didn’t disappear.

“Weapons” is an allegory for something real. Wrapped in a supernatural horror story is a distinctly human narrative that centers on people trying to make their way through life after a terrible, shared experience. That tragic event, something Archer says he doesn’t understand, could be anything. The idea of a group of school children who all vanish from their lives without a trace, leaving only a teacher and one classmate behind, suggests one particularly American tragedy.

Its the aftermath of that tragedy that “Weapons” revels in exploring. Justine is desperate to get back in the classroom, but is pushed out by administrators who are trying to mitigate public outcry and turns instead to her vices. Archer sleeps in his son’s empty bed and can’t understand why the police aren’t tearing the city down to figure out what happened, alienating the people around him and slipping in his own professional life all the while. Alex is tormented by something a little different.

In chapters, the film follows each character and explores the way what happened has impacted them, their lives and the people around them. It builds tension into some of the film’s best scares before switching to a new character and jumping backward in time. The viewer sees each character from their own eyes as it fills in the blanks and weaves its threads together.

Cregger says he started with a great premise and wrote until he found the answers to his questions. Maybe that’s why the answers don’t feel quite as thematically cohesive. There’s a mystery at the heart of “Weapons” that Justine, Archer and Alex do eventually uncover. It’s not as mundane as the grief they’re all feeling. There’s a sinister presence in Maybrook that causes people to do things that they might not otherwise — that “weaponizes” them. What that presence is or represents is fairly open to interpretation.

Cregger said he sees in the presence the effects of alcoholism. I see radicalization. Bad things happen to people — and lives are left in ruins — when any number of destructive forces take hold on people or on people who other people rely on. When Alex’s parents suddenly change in ways he doesn’t understand and for reasons outside of his control, he’s put in a remarkably challenging position.

Did I mention that “Weapons” is also a really chilling and effective horror film with incredible scares and a totally bananas finale? Or that much of the film is darkly hilarious? Grief contains multitudes.

“Weapons” is another thrilling, original horror film from Cregger that’s an exciting evolution in a lot of ways from his 2022 film “Barbarian,” which I also loved. It’s a thoughtful late-summer gem worth exploring even if horror isn’t necessarily your cup of tea. It’s playing this weekend at the Kenai Cinema and Orca Theater. Check showtimes and purchase tickets at catheatres.com and orcatheater.com.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/peninsulaclarion.