‘Weapons’: A Razor-Sharp Mystery-Horror Film About Mass Disappearance, Panic and the Corrosion of Community
- James Rutherford
- Jan 19
- 2 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Weapons (2025) is a masterful mystery-horror film that poses the question: How would a community react if an entire fifth-grade class were to disappear without a trace? Weapons explores this baffling scenario through the perspectives of six disparate characters, including the class’ young teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) and an unnerved parent named Archer Graff (Josh Brolin). Their convergence becomes the film's centerpiece, as Justine struggles to maintain her composure while deperate to solve the mystery of her missing pupils.
Justine and Archer's efforts unfold alongside the exploits of volatile police officer Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich), officious school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), homeless addict James (Austin Abrams) and the sole remaining student from Justine’s class Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). Their stories are interwoven to create a dramatic pastiche of suspense, trepidation and outright horror. Each strand widens the mystery while simultaneously drawing the narrative into focus, each character sharing overlapping shades of blame, guilt and denial. Tip of the proverbial hat to Amy Madigan as well, who portrays Alex’s elderly aunt Gladys—her presence growing increasingly dubious as the storyline progresses.
Written and directed by Zach Cregger (Barbarian), Weapons is a unique and wildly inventive new entry in the horror genre. His perspective-shifting structure becomes its own form of escalation, illustrating how quickly fear can erode sound judgment and empathy. Cregger further proves himself adept at immersive storytelling, through his razor-sharp style and confident tone, while Garner and Brolin hold is all together with their no-nonsense performances. Eye-opening, impossible to predict and at times genuinely terrifying, Weapons deftly explores the corrosion of community and the complex dynamics of predator-prey relationships under the most extreme of circumstances.
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