Weapons (Zach Cregger, August 8, 2025) Movie • Page 15

I haven't watched this yet but I for one am SO GLAD this is apparently not yet another horror movie primarily about trauma/grief. Enough already.

 

It is a lot about trauma and grief I’m not sure where it’s coming from that it’s not a big part of the movie. I think it’s just not explored as deep as the events probably warranted and there’s a pleasantly surprising amount of humor throughout

 

The party I was with was, immediately after walking out of the movie, theorizing that the movie was a metaphor for school shootings, and while I agree that’s one aspect of the film to the viewer, I leaned towards the idea that it was a exploring and playing with the interpretation of those themes, without Gladys actually being a harbinger of school shootings or whatever metaphor….like she’s just a witch doing witchy things…and that’s where the movie operates and lands and actually is unique

 

The main complaint I seem to be seeing is that it's "just" an entertainment and doesn't really seem to have much deeper on its mind / doesn't leave the viewer with much to chew over - again, fine by me. Not enough filmmakers just wilding out and not obsessing over thematic positioning imho. I'll refrain from any further comment till I actually see it though, likely a couple Tuesdays from now.

 

I feel like Cregger downplaying deeper thematic readings of the film does not mean that he did not put them there and simply may not want to go deeper about it or leave it up too audiences to interpret

 

The issue with all this "elevated" horror is every new horror movie about grief wants to be the next Babadook or Hereditary, but I can't think of a horror movie since (centered around grief) that's reached the same level of quality. Not that it can't be done, it's just gotten tiring.

I can think of one movie in the last few years that was excellent for its first half before deciding to go the grief/trauma route. It was still good, but it could have been amazing.

Weapons is great because it contains grief and trauma but is entirely its own thing. I never at any point had a sense that what the movie was doing had been done before. At least not in the same way.

Felt similarly with 28 Years Later and Sinners. It's been an insane year for innovative horror movies.

 

I actually had a conversation with my friends after about how this is the type of movie i really dont want to think about too hard, or let discourse change my mind.

All i know is i had an absolute blast watching it and loved reacting with and at the audience as it unravelled itself. Some movies can just be reviewed by the real time vibe even if there's things to 'pick apart'.

 

I went to a book promo thing for the podcaster/comedian Jamie Loftus and asked her what she thought of the hot dog scene. She asked me what I thought about the movie, I said I loved it and she was like "Zach Cregger's got to work out his issues with older women." And I was like "Hmmmm...I didn't think about that."

 

It occurred to me, but The Mother in Barbarian is pretty clearly a victim and Long is not exactly a sympathetic character

 

...it was supposed to be taken another way? Not trying to be condescending about it, I just genuinely thought that was the main takeaway from the movie.

Oh for some reason I read your post as "It just occurred to me" lol, I can read sometimes

 

I think the issue is more about using older women’s bodies as a source of cheap gross-out/jump scares

 

eh, this thread is weird today and this isn't worth getting into lol

 

I think you meant this for the Horror Thread, but yeah, I enjoyed it a lot too

 

Goddammit lol

 

I take full responsibility

 

Movie is very good and I will be recommending it to everyone I know.

 

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. But nothing could make me more of a weirdo than trying to break down the nuances of two horror movies and holding up a huge line for a person I’ve just met. So I just said “Ha ha! That’s right! Good movie though!”

 

Just got out, catching up, but yeah this part took it over the edge for me from good to great. Banger.

 

Ok, so my understanding of the not really explained rules in this is that to control someone you need an object of their’s. The name tags and ribbon are things we distinctly see. Then the hair is used to determine a target to attack. I think this is fairly consistent, but we don’t see what she used to control the cop and James, and she takes the kids hair once they’re there and they don’t attack anyone until that stick is broken, so hair may count as a possession but it may not.

That’s just what I think after watching, but yeah generally the big plan seems poorly thought out and kind of made up on the spot when someone gets in the way. Deciding who to possess and who to kill was not handled well, but yeah it’s a movie and I can suspend my disbelief at whatever would be most entertaining.

 

seeing this again in spite of the baffling posts in here

 

I had no idea what was going to happen going in, love that it was a witch movie, loved those scenes and the vagueness of it, and how long it took to really reveal what was happening. She entered into the plot so slowly until she was the only thing, just made it all feel so menacing.

Already read a lot of conflicting political analysis on this, but I think simplest answer seeing a bunch of kids taken over is very creepy, then to see that reversed and they rip apart a witch is very satisfying. Like that just rules, haven’t seen that in a movie before and it was sick.

 

Ok movie!

 

I liked this but not nearly as much as I was hoping to based on the hype I was seeing and how much I loved Barbarian.

Honestly the whole first half was kind of a slog for me, and it felt like every time it started to get interesting it would switch to a different character and cut off the momentum. When Gladys finally showed up it got a lot better, and pretty much any section with her was really great, especially her final scene. That alone made me wish I loved the rest of the film more.

By the time we finally got up to date with everyone though, things were over pretty quickly and despite really loving where it ended up I couldn't help but feel like the whole thing was kind of anticlimactic and never actually went anywhere that interesting. Still a lot of really great scenes and moments though, it just feels like there was potential for a much better film here, or at least one I would have liked a lot more.

 

It really struck me after awhile thinking about it that this is one of the oldest and most traditional scary story premises there is in human culture evil old witch steals little kids in the middle of the night but it's told in such an interesting, unconventional, and unique way that you don't even really associate it as a familiar trope while watching it.

 

Almost $30 mil global gross just on opening day.