Movie Review: Weapons (2025)

Genre: Supernatural Mystery Horror  

Director: Zach Cregger  
Starring: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Amy Madigan  

Running Time: 128 minutes  

Synopsis: In a suburban Pennsylvania community, 17 out of 18 children from the same third grade classroom inexplicably leave their homes at 2:17am and disappear. Young Alex Lilly is the only exception. The class teacher Justine (Julia Garner) becomes the target of enraged parents, including Archer (Josh Brolin), the father of one of the missing kids. Police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) and homeless addict James (Austin Abrams) are caught up in the mystery, made more bizarre by the sudden appearance of Alex's eccentric aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan).

What Works Well: The events immediately after the kids' disappearance are recounted from various perspectives. Teacher Justine, dad Archer, police officer Paul, and addict James shed different light on the intractable mystery, director and writer Zach Cregger rocking the small and seemingly quaint suburb with an inexplicable event and unleashing a sense of mounting dread. Julia Garner excels as the teacher in the middle of the storm, shrugging off the community's rage and doggedly conducting her own snooping into what may have happened to her students.

What Does Not Work As Well: After all the careful build-up, the final act is quite the let-down. While Amy Madigan is memorable under layers of make-up and in an outlandish wig, her character's appearance and the subsequent turn towards barely explained witchcraft punctures all suspense out of the narrative. Gore and humour take over, wasting the clever narrative construction. And in retrospect, the plot can only be enabled by incredibly slipshod police work.

Key Quote:

Justine (addressing a parents' meeting): The truth is that I want answers...just as badly as all of you.

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