Film Review: Weapons

by Tadd Mecham

Weapons

• five out of five stars

• Rating: R for strong bloody violence and grisly images, language throughout, some sexual content and drug use

• Run time: 129 minutes

• Directors: Zack Cregger

• Released: 2025

Weapons is the latest super-hyped horror film of 2025. It has been propped up on the pedestal of countless ‘best horror film of the year’ claims. This happens every year, and the vast majority of the time it isn’t true. But I can safely say, as someone who has spent their life obsessed with horror, you can finally believe the hype with this one.

Elementary teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), arrives at school one morning to find that her entire third grade class has disappeared without a trace. As Justine searches for answers, she soon discovers the truth about what happened is far stranger than she could have ever imagined.

Zack Cregger made a name for himself with 2022’s Barbarian. And like his first feature, Weapons is shot with very thoughtful camerawork and written with enough narrative shifts to make your head spin. It is polished and consistently impressive in its presentation, with an incredible attention to detail when the story retreads previous events from new perspectives.

The script is tight, smart and well paced for a film over two hours long. The writing understands just how close horror and comedy reside and plays to that strength often. Where there are genuine laughs, genuine screams will soon follow.

The performances in this are great. There is impressive work from every actor in the main cast, with one destined to become a staple on every list of favorite horror villains ever. The quality of this filmmaking feels leagues above everything else in theaters and begs for multiple viewings just to catch subtle things that were missed. Will it be too much (horror or humor) for some? Yes. But it will satisfy any horror fan looking for something big and meaty to kick off the spooky season.

My advice would be to avoid looking into the plot at all and just give it a watch without expectation. I cannot recommend Weapons enough.

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