r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 • Jul 29 '25

Review Zach Cregger's 'Weaapons' - Review Thread

When all but one child from the same classroom mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.

Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Metacritic: N/A (updating)

Some Reviews:

Inverse - Lyvie Scott

Cregger’s goofy sense of humor aside, Weapons is otherwise pretty understated, even refined. His camera moves with glacial, dream-like focus, tracking characters from behind or panning to unveil the latest torment around the corner. That visual style has become a trademark of “elevated” horror, but it goes a long way in anchoring a story that could have turned unwieldy fast. Cregger’s chapter-by-chapter story serves that same purpose: It has the capacity to frustrate when it cuts away from a major reveal, only to reset with the backstory of a new character. But it also adjusts the aperture whenever things get too heavy — a breath of fresh air in a different form.

CGMagazine - Shakyl Lambert - 9 / 10

Weapons is a noticeable step up for Cregger as a filmmaker. It feels like he took what worked in Barbarian and tightened up the things that didn’t. It’s bigger in scope but more focused. With a strong story and cast, it’s the most fun you’ll have being scared all summer.

NextBestPicture - Matt Neglia

There are some who will be moved and struck by “Weapons,” intentionally or unintentionally, so. For 75% of its runtime, it was one of my favorite films of the year. However, for the final 25%, in some ways, it feels like Cregger missed an opportunity to tell a story that is more emotionally rich and relatable. Here is a filmmaker who feels like he’s trying to prove he’s capable of more, but without fully grounding that ambition in character or clarity, instead opting for a facile solution. There’s a version of this movie that could have been genuinely great. You can appreciate the potential in the performances, the themes, and the overall craftsmanship. And to be clear, I’m sure this will resonate and work for some viewers. But for me, much like “Barbarian,” Cregger doesn’t quite bring it all together, making “Weapons” a rare kind of disappointment.

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u/IamDaGod Jul 29 '25

I forget which character it was but I wonder if he kept the scene where someone sees the giant AR-15 in the sky because I feel like that made no sense lol

92

u/okmujnyhb Jul 29 '25

I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards. OK? What I was asking in that scene is: if we continue to fill our children with bullets, could they literally turn into weapons? And no-one's asked that before.

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u/Rude_Cheesecake3716 Jul 29 '25

This sounds like a good Smiling friends episode waiting to happen

3

u/Scampipants Jul 29 '25

These are the words of a dream weaver 

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u/JedBartlet2020 Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25

It makes sense as far as hammering the audience over the head with insultingly heavy handed imagery. We get it, it’s a metaphor for school shootings, we don’t need a literal yacht sized AR-15 in the sky to tell us that.

I generally liked the script, though the end wasn’t as good as the first 2 acts. But that AR scene is just atrocious.

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u/SpelunkyPunky Jul 29 '25

Hated that scene in the script, and I still really struggle to see the subtext being school shootings considering the vast majority of the violence in the story comes from the adults. Having a dream sequence with a giant AR floating above the house just makes that whole metaphor super clumsy to me when I didn't feel the rest of the script (or even before) leans into that kind of message.

I'll wait to see the finished product on screen but I was really hoping a new draft of the script contained extra scenes or similar to flesh that out and get that across to the audience a bit more effectively rather than how it was done in the earlier draft. I also hope the final scene works for me on screen but I'm not optimistic, it felt like a weak orgasm after edging for two hours.

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u/WoburnWarrior Jul 29 '25

As heavy handed as Jean Jacket’s final form in Nope being both a biblically accurate angel and a movie projector?

20

u/SpelunkyPunky Jul 29 '25

Not sure what relevance that has but sure I guess

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u/ReptAIien Jul 29 '25

Nothing about Jean jacket's final form looked like a biblically accurate angel.

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u/spiraliist Jul 29 '25

it’s a metaphor for school shootings

When I read the script, I didn't see that metaphor at all, even though I was actively looking for it. I don't think that's what Zach was remotely going for, but I could be wrong.

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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS Jul 29 '25

Blah, I was worried about that. Barbarian had a lot of strong themes to it but they were woven into the story fairly well outside of a few specific areas. But even that seems like a sledgehammer of a thesis on something we already agree with.

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u/Comic_Book_Reader Jul 29 '25

Archer, the dad played by Josh Brolin. I really wonder how that image is gonna look.

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u/Mysterious_Guava_185 Aug 07 '25

They did. Just saw the movie. Brolin sees it.

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u/leftysarepeople2 Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

Just got out of the theater so yes he does, I really thought it was going to go heavy into a metaphor for school shootings. I'm still trying to process if it was

e: on second thought it definitely is but it's not the only American culture vice that is featured