Weapons is the third theatrically released film from Cregger, the second horror and second solo directed, as his first film, Miss March, was a collaboration with his long-time collaborator, the late Trevor Moore. This newest film has been highly anticipated as his follow-up to Barbarian, a strange genre-bending horror flick that came out of nowhere in 2022, putting Cregger on the map as a name in horror to watch. Even this year’s earlier horror flick Companion placed a lot of its marketing around Cregger’s name. Weapons is bigger in scope and scale than his first horror flick, but I think it’s important to look at some of his previous films, specifically Miss March, as they provide some interesting context for his latest, in my opinion, masterpiece.

Miss March is a raunchy 2009 comedy about a guy named Eugene, played by Cregger, who lands in a coma on prom and when he awakens four years later, he learns his high school sweetheart has become a Playboy model. Eugene and his best friend Tucker, a crude porn obsessed man child played by the late Trevor Moore, embark on a road trip comedy to the Playboy Mansion in search of his long-lost girlfriend and Tucker’s dream of visiting the Playboy Mansion.

It’s a gross-out raunchy comedy that features a ton of defecation and fellatio jokes that was released in a time when Hollywood was bending over backwards to put those types of flicks in theaters. It’s honestly still a pretty great comedy, but a huge world away from Cregger’s recent films. Before Zach started making horror movies, he was mainly a comedy actor and writer, known best for his founding role as a member of the whitest kids you know. A comedy troupe that consisted of him and Trevor, along with some other very funny individuals, gained popularity with their sketch show that ran for five seasons. In 2021, Trevor Moore died in a freak household accident, effectively ending the career and legacy of the whitest kids you know. This is important because Weapons is a film filled with grief and feels like a direct result of a tragic freak accident.

Weapons begins with a haunting narration of a young child telling the story of Justine Gandy’s third-grade class. One night, at 2:17 in the morning, every member of Justine’s class, except for one boy named Alex, all mysteriously got up out of their beds, walked down the stairs, and ran out their front door, into the night, never to be seen from again.

It’s a haunting premise, but it is little more than a setup for a film that distinctly follows three main genres, all dealing with the aftermath of this event. The first genre this film explores is grief-ridden drama. That is where this movie feels like Cregger exercising his demons on the loss of his good friend and constant collaborator. The film follows several people in the town as they all try to cope with this tremendous loss. Parts of the film feel like the HBO series The Leftovers, particularly its dour first season, while also hinting at real-life tragedies, like the countless small towns affected by school shootings or gun violence. A terrible thing has occurred with no explanation, but everyone in this small town, in one way or another, has been affected by this loss.

I should say I won’t be going into full spoilers for this film, but I will cover the basic plot of the film that has been revealed in the trailers and other marketing materials. Weapons is a mosaic, following various different people in the town as they struggle with the town’s loss. The first person followed is the teacher, Justine Gandy, played by Julia Garner, and she is impeccably cast in this role. You can feel the tension in her shoulders as she watches her back around every corner, knowing the people of this small town all wonder why it was just her class where this phenomenon occurred. Cregger decides not to portray her as a white savior or innocent victim; instead, she’s a flawed individual, one who is working through her own life problems, and this scenario is just one more thing for her detractors to point out. It’s a smart choice and one that makes this whole film feel real and lived in.

The next genre this film delves into is deep mystery. Josh Brolin plays the father of one of the missing children, and he takes it upon himself to solve this baffling mystery. There is a mystery here, one with a satisfying conclusion in my opinion, but the mystery itself is not what kept feel going for me. It was this constant sense of grief and dread that was present throughout the entire film.

Each character, whether they’re searching for answers, trying to mend their life, or just attempting to survive in this geographical oddity of a town, is dealing with this loss every day. Alden Ehrenreich plays a local beat cop, and even though he’s emphatically not the detective on the case, he’s still pulled into this mystery and forced to reckon with a town suffering from PTSD.

The final genre this film dives into is full horror. Fans of barbarian will not be disappointed with the places this film goes. There are jump scares throughout, creepy images everywhere, and plenty of gore to satiate the horror sickos. Like the characters in this story, these genres all exist in tandem and by themselves. Each thread we start to pull uncovers a little bit more of the mystery, shows a few more scares, and is utterly bathed in grief.

Cregger has been open about this film being a cathartic writing exercise for dealing with grief, and this grief is the most compelling part of the movie, at least in my opinion. I love horror flicks and I really enjoy a good mystery, but when they combine with themes of despair and coping with loss, it adds up to a meaningful piece of art that can still firmly fit in a genre film.

I know people are tired of the term elevated horror. I get it, it’s a pedantic phrase that minimizes all the great horror flicks that exist just as horror flicks. But Weapons, I feel, elevates even that idea of elevated horror. This is a horror movie; there are jump scares and creepy scenes throughout, but that is really just set dressing for Cregger’s personal story of grief and loss. It’s him using this genre as a way to tell a story that’s impossible to tell. A story of dealing with an unexplained loss. Not just him, but the entire community around him.

When Trevor Moore passed, he left behind not just a wife and child, but a team of collaborators he’d been working with for years and an army of loyal fans who had seen him on television and live stage shows. Cregger’s grief was just one aspect of the emotions felt from his loss, and instead of making a personal story that’s only relatable to him, he told the story of a town. A town all dealing with the same grief, but in their own way.

Weapons is a truly special movie, one that’s cast incredibly well, the cinematography, provided by Larkin Seiple, the man behind Everything Everywhere All at Once, is impeccable, and the themes resonate throughout while still falling firmly in a funny and genuinely scary horror flick. It’s probably my favorite movie of the year, and one I’m going to revisit every chance I get.