In 2022, ‘Barbarian’ came out of nowhere to become a horror phenomenon. Now, its writer/director Zach Cregger is back with ‘Weapons’, a film shrouded in mystery and already buzzing as the scariest movie of the year. It all begins with a chilling, unexplainable event: one night, 17 children inexplicably wake up and vanish into the darkness.
✈️ A Spine-Freezing Premise
The story kicks off in the small town of Maybrook. At exactly 2:17 a.m. one Wednesday night, 17 children leave their homes and run into the night with their arms outstretched like aeroplanes. They simply disappear. What makes it even stranger? All the missing children are from the same school class, taught by Justine Gandy (Julia Garner). Every child in her class vanishes, except for one.
🎬 A Story Written from Pain
Cregger reveals that he wrote the script during an incredibly difficult time in his life after losing someone close to him in a sudden tragedy. “I was in such an emotionally charged space that I wrote it in a big vomit to just feel these feelings,” he explains. This personal pain infuses the film with a grounded, authentic fear. Like with ‘Barbarian’, he started writing with no idea where the story would go, allowing him to unearth the plot like a paleontologist discovering a dinosaur skeleton.
🤫 More Twists Than Barbarian
If you thought ‘Barbarian’ was full of surprises, Cregger promises even more here. “This movie has more twists and turns than Barbarian,” he says, but with one key difference: “I never abandon the audience”. The film has seven main characters, though the initial marketing only focuses on two: the accused teacher (Garner) and a grieving father (Josh Brolin). The mystery of the missing children is just the beginning of a much larger, more complex story that promises to be a fun, terrifying roller coaster ride.
Bibliography:
Maytum, Matt. “Weapons.” SFX, issue 394, Future plc, August 2025, pp. 46-49.
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