ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) —
“WEAPONS” (2025, 129 min., directed by Zach Cregger)
There are a couple ways to read “Weapons,” the fantastic, novelistic new horror film from “Barbarian” director Zach Cregger. The first is by its astute metaphor.
Archer and an AR-15
Written and directed by Cregger, “Weapons” follows an ensemble cast of characters through the small town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania as they cope with the mysterious disappearance of 17 children from an elementary school class. Home security footage captured several of the kids leaving their homes at exactly 2:17 a.m. and running away, arms outstretched in a plane-like posture.
Even stranger, every child in the class disappeared but for one: a young boy named Alex Lilly. The disappearance is a mystery neither Alex nor his teacher, Justine Gandy – a wonderful Julia Garner as a neurotic, insecure force of nature – can explain.
The film is divided into chunks by character, drip-feeding the story to the audience via shifts in point-of-view perspective, which often climax with chilling cliffhanger scares…