A small town struggles with the sudden disappearance of 17 children from the same elementary classroom in Weapons, the latest film from Barbarian director Zach Cregger that opens in Prague and cinemas worldwide this weekend. Like in his previous film, Cregger challenges narrative norms to create something that feels fresh and surprising; unlike that film, he breaks through genre barriers to create something entirely new and affirms his status as one of the most interesting directors currently working in Hollywood.
Weapons is almost indescribable, blending Prisoners-like small town crime drama with James Wan’s steady hand for horror (there are some shockingly effective scares), and offbeat comedy that feels part Twin Peaks and part Coen Brothers. It’s all filmed at the highest level of craftsmanship, with trenchant cinematography by Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and an evocative soundtrack featuring tense original music from the director and Ryan and Hays Holladay and memorable use of George Harrison’s Beware of Darkness.
A unseen child narrator gives us Weapons‘ backstory: at 2:17 a.m. in Maybrook, Pennsylvania, 17 from the same classroom all inexplicably leave their homes and disappear, mystifying local police and leaving local townspeople without answers. Their teacher and a lone remaining student are questioned, but no leads are found; the story picks up 30 days after the mass disappearance, as the school reopens and outraged parents confront officials.
Part of Weapons‘ charm, like Barbarian, is its unconventional narrative structure, which has not been revealed by promotional material: consult reviews with caution before heading out to see the movie. Unlike Barbarian, there isn’t a single shift in tone or style but a Rashomon (or Pulp Fiction) style examination of the film’s key events from six different perspectives that slowly paint a full picture and reveal the unsettling mystery at the heart of the story.
Weapons begins with Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), the schoolteacher whose class goes missing. She’s just as perplexed as everyone else in town, but blamed for the disappearance, and turns to alcohol while being harassed and stalked by members of the community. Seiple’s camera slowly tracks her throughout her home and Cregger and editor Joe Murphy masterfully take their time to let fear build across the multiple threats she faces; nightmares involving her students result in a showstopping jump scare that is as effective as they get.
Archer Graff (Josh Brolin) is the father of one of the missing students, who confronts and follows Justine before following another lead into what might have happened to his son. He, too, has evocative nightmares punctuated by scares, and his off-the-cuff reaction to one of them results in one of Weapons‘ biggest laughs, and hints at a kind of self-awareness that will become more pronounced in the film’s later scenes.
Justine and Archer are generally the protagonists of the film, and the ones who conduct their own investigation into the missing children when the police fail to deliver any answers. But, in what may be Weapons‘ most contentious element for some viewers, they largely disappear from the narrative for about 45 minutes as the focus turns to seemingly extraneous side characters who have far less connection to the missing children.
These characters include local policeman Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich), homeless junkie and thief James (Austin Abrams, whose utterly authentic performance steals the film), and benevolent school principal Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong). They go about their daily lives without concern for the film’s central mystery, until that mystery inserts itself into their lives in unexpected and tragic fashion.
You’ll either have been entranced by Weapons’ craft to go with these narrative shifts, or you won’t. But central to the film’s themes is how a major tragedy affects various members of a community: there’s a clear school shooting allegory throughout most of the film, while director Cregger has stated that he wrote the film in response to the death of his longtime friend and collaborator Trevor Moore. A key aspect of the movie is how a tragedy like this affects all of us, not only those directly impacted.
A final segment is told from the perspective of Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the lone remaining member of Justine’s class, and while the mystery has been solved by this point, a dazzling performance by Amy Madigan as his aunt—who, like Nicolas Cage in Longlegs, perfectly straddles the line between comedic and terrifying—keeps us glued to the screen. The film itself expertly balances nail-biting tension and black comedy in its final scenes, ending the film on the perfect note.
Weapons is a masterclass in genre-bending storytelling, blending bone-chilling horror and dark humor with a razor-sharp edge. Cregger delivers an experience that is as unsettling as it is captivating—each perspective peeling back layers of a tragedy that haunts a community long after the children vanish. It’s the rare mainstream film that doesn’t just tell a story—it challenges how stories are told, and lingers in the mind long after the credits have rolled. Forget elevated horror; this one elevates cinema.
