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.

One of these characters is Archer Graff, the father of a disappeared boy and a local contractor, played by Josh Brolin. Brolin brings his signature gruff charisma to Archer in a performance which feels half angry PTO parent, half private investigator. His chapter of the film is “Weapons” at its most procedural, following Archer as he uses contracting know-how and dogged determination to plot the path of the kids through the dark. Archer’s segment of the story – each piece of “Weapons” takes on its own personality, though the overarching tension of the project is never lost – is rooted in logic and problem-solving. And yet, Archer’s chapter is also home to the most surreal image in “Weapons.”

During a dream about chasing his child into the night, Archer stumbles to the lawn of a house with a giant, floating AR-15 rifle looming over the sky, emblazoned with a glowing red “2:17.” The image is frightening enough in its arresting strangeness, enhanced by the disorienting atmosphere Cregger is so talented at crafting, but it also illuminates the real horror at the core of “Weapons”: Archer, his missing child and the floating AR-15 are the clearest depiction of the film’s metaphor for the awful tragedy of school shootings.

From the disappearance of the entire class to the focus on the timestamp of the tragedy, “Weapons” presents a cogent portrait of a community reckoning with horrific loss too akin to school gun violence. But despite that blinking gun in the sky, what makes “Weapons” such a great movie is that it does not do much more to gesture toward its allegory. There are hints here and there – the window’s of Alex’s home are blotted out with newsprint, for instance, a representation of the inescapable media attention survivors might experience – but after the rifle’s loud statement, the film settles into simply telling its story, leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions. This is a horror movie with trauma, not about it.

Secret weapons

Like a cool aunt, “Weapons” might teach you something, but it wants you to have fun, too. Its idea of fun is just gruesome, horrific gore and spooky, startling scares, sprinkled with alcoholism, infidelity and child neglect for good measure. Yet, despite that cheery subject matter, “Weapons” manages to stay light on its feet. Two of its performances are a big reason why: in a star-studded cast, the biggest stand-outs of the film are nine-year-old Cary Christopher as Alex and Amy Madigan as his Aunt Gladys, a preening, creepy, red-wigged weirdo.

Child performances in horror films can be a chancy roll of the dice, but Christopher is extraordinary, bringing a depth, wisdom and heartbreaking innocence to his role. Though Alex is asked to shoulder the weight of the world, Christopher makes it easy to root for him, providing the movie a narrative anchor in its sea of sadness and scares.

If Christopher is the secret weapon of “Weapons,” Madigan was the perfect performer to pit him against. The 74-year-old actress gives the performance of her career as Alex’s antagonistic auntie, and Madigan feels destined to be the muse of many a Halloween costume come this October. She is occasionally menacing, a little bit camp, and always, always frightening. Madigan is great.

A cinematic page-turner

For a film with seven central characters, there is not a weak link in “Weapons.” Every segment of the movie follows a character more compelling than the last, powered by Cregger’s confident direction. Thanks to the non-linear narrative, Cregger is given the opportunity to revisit scenes the audience has seen before from new angles, giving additional context to previous encounters or heightening dramatic tension with what we know is yet to come. Every viewer is sure to have their personal favorite segment, but mine was “James,” named for Austin Abrams’ fantastic turn as an unhoused drug addict who stumbles into the center of the story’s mystery.

Throughout each of its six chapters, “Weapons” proves itself an irresistible page-turner, compelling from beginning to end and keeping you guessing until the final five minutes, where it closes the book on its central mystery with a sick, satisfying payoff. Unlike your favorite paperback, however, “Weapons” is best experienced in the dark.

“Weapons” is now playing in theaters.

Rating: 5/5