Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of August 11, 2025
Weapons
Rated R for strong bloody violence and grisly images, language throughout, some sexual content and drug use
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
In Theaters
Hot off his 2022 studio debut Barbarian, writer/director Zach Cregger has another potential horror hit on his hands here with his new mystery/thriller Weapons. The story follows a room full of kids in elementary school who one day just didn’t show up to class. And the town and its police have no clue what has happened to them. One night, all at the same time, the children ran out the door and simply disappeared into the darkness. But not everyone disappeared. The teacher (Ozark’s Julia Garner) and one student (Cary Christopher) show up, apparently not having a clue what is going on. Of course, the parents of the missing kids blame the teacher, which begins to ruin her life, but her own curiosity of the mystery keeps her living there trying to put together the pieces. And while many parents have accepted their fate, one angry dad (Josh Brolin) is not willing to accept the detective work of the police and begins to sort out the clues himself. Weapons is being sold as one of the scariest films of the year, but personally, I found it way more interesting than horrifying. I really loved how the film is packaged into several different parts, all according to a particular character’s point of view. This allows the audience to try to piece together the mystery until there is no mystery left. And while the film isn’t particularly scary, it is super creepy at times, with some decent jump scares to keep you engaged and swallowing down your popcorn. The performances here are excellent, with a really good cast of actors to pull them off. Much of this is due to a terrific script by Cregger which uses a Tarantino approach to pull off what could have been mishandled by any other linear method of writing. By the end we get a harrowing two hours at the movies that will leave most audiences uniquely satisfied. B+