“Weapons” was written, directed, co-produced & co-composed by Zach Cregger, who previously directed “Barbarian”, stars Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong & Amy Madigan. After the success of Cregger’s previous film, the afro mentioned “Barbarian” in 2022, he began working on this script, which was inspired by certain films, “Magnolia” & “Prisoners”. Once the script was completed, a massive bidding had begun with Netflix, Universal, New Line & TriStar all placing their bets but eventually Warner Bros. would emerge with script & filming began in May of 2024.
In the town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, an entire 3rd grade classroom goes missing when one random night at 2:17 am, 17 children ran away from their homes & seemingly vanished. The teacher, Ms. Gandy (Garner) remains the prime suspect in the children’s disappearance & faces public backlash from the media as well as the parents & staff of the school. One parent in particular is Archer Graff (Brolin) begins his own investigation into the disappearance after weeks go by & the cops make no progress. Principle Marcus Miller (Wong) makes the decision to place Gandy on leave while investigation is ongoing & the student left in her class will be placed elsewhere. However, things take a dark when Gandy follows her former student home & notice his home looks to be vacant & abandoned. Archer’s investigation also leads to same house after reviewing his surveillance footage & mapping out his son’s trail. Their suspiciousness leads them down a very dark rabbit hole that includes witchcraft & voodoo by a random “relative”.
This film has an unbelievable sense of dread & helplessness. It was great & really makes feel sorry for the teacher as the film progresses & the parents in this time of certainty. This was beautifully shot film & incredible uses of wide shots that really drive home that sense of dread. Julia Garner’s performance is great due to the whirl wind of emotions her character through. Josh Brolin’s also gives a solid performance & his character arch changes throughout as well. Amy Madigan gives a great performance despite having the least amount of screen time. She shows up around halfway through the movie & her entire arch is basically the 3rd act of the film, which in my opinion is the weakest part of the film. While the character setup & story telling is a great in the first 2 acts, the final confrontation of the film is where it loses a little bit of mojo so to speak. It comes across as silly & cartoonish that when screen goes black & we hear the closing voice over & the credits start to roll, you’ll look at the screen like “That’s it?”. Kind of a letdown after this incredible journey we just went on.
Overall, this was great film with an ending that was a tad underwhelming. The film was great visually & had some great performances along with great elements of horror & psychological thriller. A major casting change was announced in 2024 after the original cast was replaced due to scheduling conflicts & the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. Pedro Pascal, Renate Reinsve, Bryan Tyree Henry & Tom Burke had all signed on to do this film before being replaced by Brolin, Garner, Wong & Ehrenreich respectively. The film was originally slated for a January 2026 release but after a strong & positive test screening, the release date was moved to August 8th, 2025.