Weapons is one of my favourite movies of 2025

I’m not that into horror movies. I do watch some every now and then but that is about it. I watch them either because I am bored and have time to kill, OR, if there is something about the movie that I find really intriguing. When I saw the trailer for weapons, it was wired more than anything else. Seeing children running with their arms open with showing any emotions; I’m in. I wanted to see what it’s about.

The movie is starts with a narration to set everything up. A child explains to us that one day in a school, none of the children of a classroom show up, apart from only one, Alex. As it turns out, the children ran out of their houses sometime after midnight and disappeared without being seen again. Alex along with the teacher of the classroom, Justine, are questioned extensively but the investigations do not go anywhere. The school opens up one month after this incident, but the parents are still anxious and demand answers, specially from Justine. One of the parents, Archer, seems more proactive than the others and we can assume he will be doing something himself to find find his missing son. Justine is advised to keep her distance from the school and Alex, but she like everyone else wants answers.

The movie is set up real quick and the story is told through the perspective of different individuals at a time. This way the movie keeps up a good pace as by changing perspectives we are kept on our toes and are given new information when watching different people. It also allows us to understand the situation of each person better. The characters in the movie are not exactly complex, nor very interesting to be honest. That said, we get to see enough of them just to feel invested. Each person also stand out and we can clearly see how they are different than the others. We are told just enough about each person to at least be invested. This investment is increased further by the performances of the actors. Everyone of the main cast did a fantastic job: Julia Garner and Josh Brolin are the lead actors and they do a great job selling their characters and their situations. The rest of the cast did a good job as well, namely Benedict Wong even with a little screen time as he had. I’m always unsure when watching movies with child actors as part of the main cast as if it is difficult to find good child actors and I don’t wanna feel like a dick criticizing the performance of a child. Thankfully, that is not the case here. The actor playing Alex delivered, and the rest of the children have their moment to shine as well towards the end of the movie.

Other than the actors selling the horror through their performances, the movie itself is done so well in every aspect. There is some amazing camerawork here. I don’t know nothing about cinematography so I do not know the vocabulary nor the techniques, but there are quite a few shots where you see them and you go “that was cool. I like how they did it”. It also uses the shadows and lights effectively, the movie can be dark at times but you can just about see what’s going on in the shadows, enough to install fear into you. There are jump scares in this movie, as in every horror movie but there aren’t THAT many. We have learned to anticipate jump scares at this point but the movie sometimes plays with your expectations. Sometimes there is ni jump scare the moment you would expect one, further increasing the tension, then the jumpscare comes in a moment where you though you would be safe. The movie isn’t completely reliant on jumpscares for the horror. There are a lot of tense moments, the ones where there is silence or just a slight sound effect to elevate the fear. Other than the ambiance and jumpscares, there is a little body horror here too. Not like in The Thing but sometimes characters move in a way or have features that are unsettling. I think that is the best way to describe the first half of the movie. As our characters are trying to solves the mystery they encounter strange situations that make them and us feel uncomfortable. There is a bit of a shift in tone during the second half of the movie. During the second half the mystery starts to get unravelled as we find out what happened to the children. Now that the mystery is going away, the scary moments are still there but they hit a little differently. There are no more unsettling moments really, instead there are events and things that happen that make you go “holy shit!”. Some of them even made me laugh, not because they were meant to be funny, but because they were ridiculous. Even though the second half of the movie is not as scary, it is still very enjoyable to watch through.

The mystery itself and the story are good as well. As I said, the movie is told from the perspective of different individuals, and each time we , the audience, learn something about what could be going on. The characters themselves start to out things together when their stories and paths start to get intertwined. It is revealed what has happened to the children around the middle of the movie, but the second half is spent giving some details as to how they ended up in their current predicament. We are also introduced to the villain of the story that is behind everything and how she carried out everything. We are given some information, some details about the how the villain works and where they come from, but not everything is explained. This is not a bad thing, as the things that are explained are enough for us to understand what is going on and any extra details would not make a difference to the story that is being told and the characters and how they are involved. We are not told their origins or where their powers come from because we don’t need them.

It was a great watch. There are good jumpscares, scary af moments and tense scenes, good production, story, and acting. I don’t have any complaints really. Some characters make questionable decisions but it is a horror movie after all. As wired as the movie is there are some things, things that the characters see, that feel out of place and have no explanation, but they are very few. I recommend watching this movie even if you are not a real horror fan because there is a lot to appreciate and enjoy here.