“Those kids walked out of those homes, no one pulled them out. No one forced them. What do you see that I don't?” Captain Ed (Toby Huss)
The summer of 2025 yields one of the most creative and disturbing psychological horror films of all time, standing not far behind The Exorcist and The Shining. In Weapons, the search for an entire class of children, except for one, missing at the same time 2:17 AM, and day without a trace may be the center of the plot, but even more prominent is the reaction of individuals from the town, featured in chapters the way Bram Stoker did in his Dracula.
Weapons begins with school teacher Justine (Julia Garner), who becomes the audience’s surrogate searching, like the town itself, for her students and the motive for their disappearance. Writer-director Zach Cregger skillfully weaves her into various segments to lend the sense of vulnerability and continuity to the proceedings.
Archer Graff (Josh Brolin) has lost his son but like us as well Because the wants to know what happened and why. More than any other townsperson, he gets closest to finding the outlandish villain with considerable danger to himself. Cregger expertly distributes the exposition so that the cause for the disappearance begins to unfold more than halfway through and the monster is deliciously perfect for the story.
Although the usual horror tropes apply, Weapons has more than scares on its mind as figuratively adults become the avatars of narrow mindedness and responsibility for tragedies that inhabit small town life. Because of the multiple characters and fragmented chapter design, too little emotion limits understanding character motivation, especially of the arch villain. However, splicing it all together is the most prominent theme--the human fear of the unknown.
Nevertheless, Weapons provides plenty of suspense, thanks to its slow exposition, and enough contemporary relevance (the fears that adults can’t save vulnerable kids) to make it the best horror film of the year and in the top ten of all time.
Weapons
Director: Zach Cregger (Barbarian)
Screenplay: Cregger
Cast: Julia Garner (Fantastic Four: First Steps) Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men)
Rating: R
Length: 2h 8m
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com