WSB x Moving Picture Review: Weapons

I have a confession to make. Back in 2022, when people were falling over themselves to talk about the brilliance of Zach Cregger’s Barbarian, I was quietly ambivalent about it. I loved the whiplash-inducing turns it took you on; I loved the comedic infusion that Justin Long gave it (not to discount the writing of Whitest Kids U’Know co-founder Cregger); I loved the outstanding gore and practical effects. At the same time, though, it felt a little too Castle Freak—a little too The People Under the Stairs, too Housebound—to warrant the “wholly original,” “unlike anything you’ve ever seen” tag that so many people were bestowing upon it. 

Weapons. Image courtesy of IMDb.

In hindsight, maybe I was a little too hard on it. Regardless, I reset my expectations and tried to go into Cregger’s new film, Weapons, with a clear head and an open mind. Weapons stars Julia Garner (Apartment 7A, Wolf Man) as Justine, a 3rd grade teacher whose entire class suddenly goes missing in the night—each student, of their own accord, having woken at 2:17 a.m., walked out their front doors, and ran off into the dark, arms spread like an eerie “Naruto run.” Despite the mystery having nothing to do with Justine, other than it being her classroom, she quickly becomes the town’s scapegoat, particularly in the eyes of Archer (Josh Brolin), one of the missing children’s fathers. Sympathetic to Justine’s position, but equally trying to maintain some semblance of order in the tinderbox his school has become, principal Marcus (Benedict Wong) asks Justine to keep some distance until things cool down.

She does not.

As might be expected based on Cregger’s previous film, as well as early reviews of this one, after its initial framing of the central mystery, Weapons becomes a roller coaster of unexpected turns, some of which bear more fruit than others. For instance, during a dream sequence in which Archer follows his missing son out the door, he sees a giant floating AR-15 hovering over his home, an entirely undisguised reassurance to the audience that the missing children conceit is, in fact, suggestive of the epidemic of school shootings in the U.S., an American parent’s worst nightmare that their child, and indeed, a whole classroom, can vanish in an instant. Unfortunately, the analogy all but falls apart with the introduction of the clownish Gladys played by Amy Madigan (Antlers, The Hunt), a character who I’d probably try not to mention, if not for the fact that Madigan completely steals the show in every scene she’s in. 

Without mincing words, Gladys is one of the most exciting villains on screen in perhaps a decade. Her singular appearance has to be seen to be believed, but it’s the enthusiastic candor with which she goes about her business that not only makes Gladys so entertaining to watch, but so terrifying, as well. While initially keeping her existence in town a secret, Gladys eventually positions herself in the fragile realms of social etiquette and familial obligation, allowing her to hide in plain sight. Her uncanny appearance and behavior, at once disarming and suspicious, is overshadowed by a town in crisis.

There’s an awful lot of reasons to see and to talk about Weapons. Regretfully, many of those reasons come toward the latter half of the film, which I can’t bring myself to spoil so soon into its release. Weapons is a film that begs to be seen early in its run, when you have the best chance at seeing it with the biggest audience possible. It’s a communal film that gets its energy from those who are watching it. And while I may not share the declaration by some that it is “the best horror film of the year,” I admit that it’s not far off—and it certainly builds on Zach Cregger’s growing reputation leading into his forthcoming Resident Evil reboot.

Where to watch Weapons:

Streaming information by

WSB x Moving Picture Reviews is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival. The Pittsburgh Moving Picture Festival celebrates both the art of cinema and the rich motion picture exhibition tradition of the City of Pittsburgh. Our goal in this series is to highlight new and upcoming genre films and, wherever possible, to support local, independent movie theaters in the process.

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Article Written by Ande Thomas

Ande loves the intersection of sci-fi and horror, where our understanding of the natural world clashes with our fear of the new and unknown. He is an independent member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and a supporting member of the Horror Writers Association. He writes about monsters and foreign horror and can also be found over on Letterboxd.

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