Movie Review: Weapons (2025)

Weapons (2025) written and directed by Zach Cregger

A small town is thrown into bleak misery when a whole third grade classroom of kids walks out of their houses in the middle of the night and disappear into the darkness. Well, all but one child. Suspicion falls on the teacher who doesn't know anything and the boy who didn't disappear but also doesn't know anything. Everyone has a hard time dealing with the situation, leading to the revelation of some awful secrets and even worse situations. This is one of those movies where the less you know going into it, the better the movie will work.

That's odd to me, because in many ways the film did not work, even though I saw it knowing almost nothing about it. The unrelenting misery of the characters is not balanced out by anything. In fact, a lot of other characters who have their own, separate problems are drawn into the central mystery, providing more bleakness and unhappiness. The ending provides only narrative resolution, no emotional or moral satisfaction. I did experience some humor toward the end but I think the filmmakers didn't mean for me to laugh at what I did. This film just wallows in misery from start to end. It's a shame, because the structure, looking at the story from the perspective of different characters, does a good job presenting questions and providing suspense. Structurally, the movie works very well as a thriller/horror tale. If only the tale had some catharsis.

Not recommended.