This clever supernatural horror truly delves into the mind of new talented horror maestro, Zach Cregger. There’s plenty to unpack with his latest refreshingly crafted mystery horror, Weapons (2025). There’s themes of family and belonging, supernatural possession and grief, crime and addiction among many other nuanced themes cleverly hidden within the story.
Zach Cregger powerfully entered the horror scene with the curiously creative, Barbarian (2022). Suburbia is a common setting and a theme that runs throughout his horror work. Companion (2025) of which he produced and Weapons (2025) which he wrote and directed follow the same format.
What’s left to fear is usually inside the house. And is typically on a street that seemingly is nothing out of the ordinary on the surface. But as the story develops, the world that shapes around the characters becomes much stranger.
Zach Cregger: A New Horror Maestro In The Making
However, having previously focused on the comedy genre, Zach Cregger is carving out a path for himself in the horror landscape. We’re seeing highly creative horror storytelling away from the typical horror jump scares. And more towards actual scary concepts with intelligent twists and in-depth character psychology.
Unique and terrifyingly original, Cregger’s approach to horror cinema is clearly from someone who knows the genre extremely well. In a genre often saturated with familiarity in terms of settings and jump scares – Cregger turns all of this on its head.
For Ozark viewers, Julia Garner’s Ruth Langmore gives reminiscence to Justine Gandy. At least appearance wise, definitely not character wise. We’re half expecting her to switch to her ‘usual’ strong southern accent. Then we remember, we’re watching Weapons.
For the first half-hour is a very slow build. But past this point, the story develops into something so interesting it’s difficult to guess what happens next. Much like Cregger’s amazingly original, Barbarian (2022), Weapons weaves into a deeper and more complicated story. Cregger’s horror work so far has an ability to always be two steps ahead of its audience. Can you guess what happens next? Not really. Unless you’ve read the screenplay, of course.
Weapons: Multi-Perspective Chapter Structure
Weapons uses a multi-narrative storyline to cleverly tell the story from multiple perspectives. Cregger’s signature technique in his work is playing with time and perspective. Cutting in between past and present just when the story enlivens for one character creates a jolt in the timeline. It makes us invested to watch the other characters P.O.V’s to get back to the protagonist’s story.
The film is sectioned into chapters that plays with time to leave us guessing. For a while, the antagonist is left for the audience to work out. It plays through the present then moves to the past to show how characters ended up amidst their mess. It also leaves the audience hanging on which characters will ultimately survive. The ultimate villain is slowly revealed as we learn more about the story through shifting perspectives and slow build-ups which lead to big reveals.
Shifting Perspectives Creates Story Layers
Initially, we’re positioned with schoolteacher, Mrs. Gandy (Julia Garner). Through her eyes, we experience how the community turns against her. As they believe she’s somehow involved with the disappearance of her students. And as the film’s tagline points out – after one night at exactly 2.17 am, 17 children from Mrs. Gandy’s class ran out of their houses and disappeared. But one student remains, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher) whose story turns out to be much stranger than anyone could have guessed.
The story is then also interspersed with the perspectives of parent, Archer (Josh Brolin), officer Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich), and comical criminal (Austin Abrams). A jigsaw puzzle that you can’t possibly piece together with understandable comprehension, until maybe after a few watches.
Like every good film, the elements slot nicely together. From the clever storytelling and interesting characters to the ironic tone and superb cast – all wrapped up in a believable small-town setting. Cregger’s cleverly creates story layers through his non-linear narrative. He withholds information and stops and starts the narrative. Just when we think we’ve hit the next stepping stone in the story it suddenly stops. And we’re back to stage one again and must work our way through the story from a different character’s perspective.
Last night at 2:17am every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark… and they never came back.
Tagline for Weapons (2025).
Weapons – A Mixed Tone: Humorous But Deadly
But the real acting prize goes to Austin Abrams’ James Anthony; playing a person with a substance abuse disorder who just can’t seem to catch any luck. His funny character, and silly behaviour causes him to stumble into dangerous territory… repeatedly. And at times Abrams’ acting really jumps through the screen. The cinema erupted in laughter whenever he was on the screen.
His character adds a real comedy release to the backdrop of the otherwise sad storyline of missing children. Its story tone is mixed with real horror elements but comedy releases too. This is no surprise, considering Cregger started out in the comedy genre.
Due to the story layers, it’s really repeat viewings that will create a better sense of cohesion. Cregger’s films are best viewed multiple times to fully grasp his intelligent storytelling ways. His entry into the horror genre has been super powerful with Barbarian (2022). And now with Weapons. We at Filmotomy cannot wait to see more horror films from Zach Cregger. Something maybe much deadlier than Weapons.
Rating: 3.5 stars
You can read more horror reviews like our 50th anniversary analysis on Steven Spielberg’s classic masterpiece, Jaws (1975) here.
