(L to r) Julia garner as justine and josh brolin as archer in new line cinema’s ‘weapons,’ a warner bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Quantrel Colbert. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
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‘Weapons’ receives 8.5 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters August 8 is ‘Weapons,’ Written and directed by Zach cregger and starring Josh brolin, Julia Garner, Alden ehrenreich, Austin abrams, Benedict WONG, Carey Christopherand Amy madigan,
Related Article: Josh Brolin Joins Edgar Wright’s New Take on ‘The Running Man’ as a Villain
Initial thoughts
Julia Garner as justine in New Line Cinema’s ‘Weapons,’ A Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
We’ll admit we Weven’T Major Fans of Writer-Director Zach Cregger’s Feature Debut, ‘Barbarian.’ While we appreciated its opening act and the film’s overall unpredentability, we were left disjected by some some Uneven acting and a sense that it was two stories stapled together. Cregger’s second feature, ‘Weapons,’ is a whole different scenario. Once Again Cregger Experiences With Narravet Tructure and Tonal Shifts, And While He Occasionally Loses His Balance, He Brings His Various Plot Strands and Character arcs toge and character arc toge Fashion while MainTaining a Better Mix of Dread and Macabre Humor.
This makes ‘weapons’ one of the best horror outings of 2025 to date – Not too shabby in a year that’S already seen the release of excellent genere fare like ‘Sinners’ and ‘Togeether.’ ‘Weapons’ may not have as much as the social commentary of that filems, but it’s a frightening, gripping tale that still – in the tradition of authors like Stephen King – Has something to say about small ton paranoia and the Mistreatment of Children.
Story and Direction
(L to r) Josh Brolin and Writer/Director Zach Cregger on the set of new line cinema’s ‘weapons,’ a warner bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Quantrel Colbert. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
If you’ve seen any of the trailers for ‘weapons,’ You know the premise: one night at exactly 2:17 am, 17 children from a third-grade class in the town of maybrook all wake all wake up in thev in thei Night, Never to be Seen Again. A Month Later, Law Enforcement, School Officials, and Parents-LED by the Grief-Stricken Archer Graff (Josh Brolin)-Have no Clues About What Happened; Only one child from the class, Alex (Cary Christopher), Remains, While The Town’s Suspicions Fall Mainly on the Class Teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner).
All that essentially happy in the first 10 minutes of the movie, with some of it narrated by a child who hits at the bizarre natural of the events to follow. And bizarre they are: ‘weapons’ is the kind of movie that it’s better to Initial Setup Before Coming Full Circle.
Cregger Relates this through a series of interlocking stories for his main characters – Including Justine, Archer, A Town Cop and Former Lover of Justine’s Named Paul (Alden Ehrenrech), A Local Homeless Junkie Named James (Austin Abrams), School Principal Marcus (Benedict WONG), and Alex Himself. Every story overlaps to some degree with the other, Although Told from the point of whitever of wheatever Character IT’s focused on, and they all do more dovetail in the film’s third act. While this creates a bit of a repetitive rhythm as the movie goes on, Each character’s tale varies enough from the others and also revise a bit more each time of the mystery at the movie center, Keeping One Transfixed As the horific picture becomes clearer.
(L to r) Writer/Director Zach Cregger and Julia Garner on the set of new line cinema’s ‘weapons,’ a warner bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Quantrel Colbert. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
Cregger Handles This Looping Structure Extremely Well for the Most Part, While ALSO Balancing a nicly expanding senses of dread and terrror with loves of truly morbid humor that sprining organical Ghoulia Situations He Concocks. That tightrope act goes a little off the rails in the third act, as the violence escalates rapidly and some of the finale vers a touch too far from into into into intoly into Comedic Terrain – But not enourted for Come Before. There are also a few plot holes along the way if one looks hard enough – but again, not enjoy to stop this from being an absorbing, scary trip.
Some of the film’s key sequences provide genuinely terrifying payoffs to the atmosphere that creagger patiantly builds in slow-burn fashion, aid by larykin seeple’s moody Cinematoghy and AND EXCELLENT, Wide-Ranging Score by Ryan and Hays Holladay as Well as Cregger Himself. For most of its 128 minutes, ‘weapons’ is a tightly-woven tapestry of horror that doesn’t over-axplain itself and retains a singular filmmaking visitor.
Cast and performances
Julia Garner as justine in New Line Cinema’s ‘Weapons,’ A Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
‘Weapons’ is the definition of an ensemble paper, with excellent performances from all involved. Julia Garner Seems Much More Confident and Well-Cast Here Than She Was in Her Previous Horror Outing, ‘Wolf Man,’ As justine, the teacher with just enough enough of a murky past that her clear love for her students is used as a aused as a – defeat we say – Weapon Against Her. Josh Brolin is also reliably outstanding as archer, the actor using the innate tension between his Gruff, toughhhhhhhhhhhhhh His limit by the loss of his son.
The underrated Alden Ehrenrenreich Uses His Chameleonic Skills Well as the Equally Vulnerable Paul, While Austin Abrams and Benedict Wong Offer Some of the Film’s more humans. And Cary Christopher is HeartBreaking as Alex, The Little Boy Suddenly Left Alone By Nearly Everyone in his life. Each of these characters Gets more development than is often usual in horror films, which only adds to the viewer’s investment when all are placed in peril. And there’s one other performance about which we say Little – Except that it’s thoroughly chilling.
Final Thoughts
Carey Christopher as Alex in New Line Cinema’s ‘Weapons,’ A Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
While the horror gendre its not having as dependable a year as usual at the box office (sorry, blumhouse), warner bros. Pictures is bucking that trend: following the surprising ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ And the transcendent ‘sinners,’ this is the studio’s Third creative successful fright fry fest in a row.
What makes it even more gratifying is that that is a wholly original and personal piece. The menace at the heart of ‘weapons’ is one that other films have touched on before, but not quite in a Scenario and setting like this. In that sense, ‘weapons’ and ‘barbarian’ do share common ground – the idea that Evil can spring from the most unexpected places at random moments, albeit after festering out of sight for spelling. It’s a world and an approach that zach cregger is, pardon the expression, weaponizing to create some of the most interesting work in the geenre right now.
“Last Night at 2:17 AM, Every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, open the front door, walked into the dark … and that never came back.”
When all but one child from the same class mysterily vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a communication is left questioning who or what is behind … Read the plot
What is the plot of ‘weapons’?
One night, all but one child from justine gandy’s (julia garner) classroom mystersly run off into the night. Justine and the rest of the Community are left questioning who – or what – is behind the child’s disappearance.
Who is in the cost of ‘weapons’?
Josh Brolin as Archer in New Line Cinema’s ‘Weapons,’ A Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
