Review: The Film, Weapons…

There are some films you only need to see once. You know what I mean. Films that you not so much view as experience, films that mark you—if not momentarily smart you—films that leave you feeling something quite extraordinary. Again, these are films you only need to see once.  

Just once. That’s it. 

Weapons (2025), a film by Zach Cregger, is one of these films. I rate it up there with Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), and The Substance (2024). It’s a horror film, like those mentioned above, that truly, truly frightens you. I shudder to even think of them. 

Remember when I said that you only need to see films like these once? 

The film is an ensemble-cast, nonlinear narrative starring Julia Garner (Fantastic Four) as Justine Gand, a third-grade schoolteacher who navigates this horrific, unexplained event. Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) plays Archer Graff, a grieving father who symbolizes anger and is the first to take action. Alden Ehrenreich (Solo) plays Paul, a local, recovering alcoholic cop who’s trapped in a loveless marriage and makes career-threatening mistakes. 

The premise itself can scare viewers away. As a supernatural horror thriller that centers on the baffling, simultaneous disappearance of seventeen children from a single classroom in the seemingly idyllic town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, this film, according to Cregger and other film critics, is an allegory for the parentification of children who need to take care of drug-addicted parents. Beyond its supernatural elements, the film also explores grief and critiques the societal shortcomings surrounding the protection of children. School shootings come to mind, as they should.

But I thought of none of these things as I watched this film. I thought of none of this while I watched a crazed, bug-eyed elementary school principal (Benedict Wong, Doctor Strange), pound his partner’s face to a chunky pulp with his forehead. This did not at all enter my mind while the affected children literally tear apart Gladys (Amy Madigan, Brooklyn, Minnesota), the initiator of the horror. This was the last thing on my mind when Whitmer Thomas (The Walking Dead) and Callie Schuttera (The Rookie) repeatedly stab themselves in the face with a fork. 

But the film is remarkable, I have to give it that. With a structure like Pulp Fiction (1994) and messages that pitch but do not necessarily land, with the characters as archetypes that at times span only two dimensions, and themes that swing for the bleachers but sometimes ground out, Weapons is, after all this, a cautionary tale. The film examines the vulnerability of suburban America, the enduring effects of generational trauma, and the damage wrought by scapegoating, paranoia, and mistrust.

Do I recommend this film? I do. If you can stomach it.