Zach Cregger became an overnight horror sensation with the release of Barbarian, his wild, twisty genre offering that grossed a whopping $45 million worldwide against a budget of about $4 million. Since its release, horror fans have been eagerly anticipating his next directorial turn – and it's finally right around the corner. Three years after Barbarian hit our screens, Cregger has returned with Weapons, an equally mysterious chiller with a star-studded cast keeping its plot pretty close to its chest. It sparked a furious bidding war among huge studios and horror icon Jordan Peele, with New Line Cinema eventually coming out on top.
An intense viral marketing campaign and eerie trailers have followed, but we're still no closer to really understanding what the hell is going on in Maybrook. The film's latest poster still offers no real clues, sporting what looks to be a bell and the number six, a can of chicken soup, a bonsai tree, and a child running in the same robotic manner we've seen in the past trailers. Any ideas? No, neither do we. Ahead of Creggers' hotly tipped release, we're set to arm you with all the information in our arsenal you need to know about Weapons, from release date to cast, plot, trailer breakdown, and more.
Release date
Weapons is set for release on August 8, giving film fans the perfect excuse to escape the sunshine and sweltering heat for a cool, air-conditioned theatre. It comes a week after the release of Dave Franco and Alison Brie's wild, gooey body horror Together, proving that it really is the summer of scares in 2025 after Dangerous Animals, 28 Years Later, and Bring Her Back terrified their way to box office success earlier this year. The month closes out with The Toxic Avenger on August 29, two years after Toxie wowed audiences at Fantastic Fest, so it's set to be an August to remember in genre cinema.
Cast
Months after appearing in Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man, Julia Garner is back on our screen in Weapons as schoolteacher Justine Gandy. Speaking ahead of the film's release, Garner teased that the horror we might be expecting may not be what we'll see: “It's not a proper horror movie. It feels very Zach Cregger in that element. There are some comedic elements to it. Barbarian felt like that as well. This also feels [singular], so I'm excited. I'm excited for people to see it and hear their response” (per Entertainment Weekly).
She stars alongside Hollywood icon Josh Brolin as Archer Graff, the father of a missing child who is suspicious of Justine's involvement. It was rumoured that Pedro Pascal was originally in the running for the role, which eventually went to The Goonies star.
He heaped praise on Creggers' script in a chat with Collider, sharing: “It's one of those scripts that's a new thing. Once in a while, you have a new voice, and new voices are scary. Imagine Scorsese when he was doing Taxi Driver and Mean Streets, and people were like, ‘What is this? I love it.' You get a new voice. Zach Cregger is a new voice… [Weapons is] just really smartly designed. Once in a while, you throw the dice, and you hope that somebody is truly a new voice and a great filmmaker. We'll see.”
Cocaine Bear star Alden Ehrenreich, Doctor Strange's Benedict Wong, Antlers' Amy Madigan, Wolfs' Austin Abrams, Grace and Frankie's June Diane Raphael, and Mank's Cary Christopher round out the cast. Not all of these huge names feature in the film's trailer, which has led fans to believe we could have another Barbarian switch-up on our hands and the narrative will take a wild turn, or maybe several, introducing interweaving stories.
Plot
Little is known about Weapons' plot details, but what we do know from the film's trailers and eerie promotional website is that it revolves around the mysterious disappearance of school kids in a small town. The official synopsis reads: “When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.”
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Cregger shed a little light on what we can expect – but it actually raises more questions than answers. Of the mystery of the missing children, he said this will “propel you through at least half of the movie, but that is not the movie.” He continued: “The movie will fork and change and reinvent and go in new places. It doesn't abandon that question, believe me, but that's not the whole movie at all. By the midpoint, we've moved on to way crazier shit than that.”
Like Barbarian, though, he told Empire that there are plenty of comedy elements to Weapons. “It's funny, it's scary, it's inviting. It's not a grim, morose slog,” he added. “Barbarian was an exploration of social themes; [it] was me looking at the world around me. This is more an exploration of my own personal shit, for lack of a better word. Weapons is me looking within, and working on myself.” He also said that Weapons takes inspiration from Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 classic Magnolia in that it is “melancholy, yet it has comedic situations.”
Trailer
Weapons' official trailer wastes no time immersing us into the mystery, with a sinister voiceover informing viewers: “At 2:17AM, every child from Mrs Gandy's class woke up, left their beds, stepped outside, and never returned.” Grainy footage shows the children running away from their homes, before delving deeper into the effects of the children's disappearance on their small town, with various shots of adults stabbing themselves in the face or even self-immolating.
It could suggest the children themselves are the weapons, used against their adults to cause mass destruction – but why? A mass psychosis seems to have gripped the town, but it is unclear exactly what is causing the youngster's bizarre behaviour and their parents' loosening grip on reality. Like Longlegs last year, the trailer for Weapons shares vibes alone and very little information, and the effect is truly chilling as its viral marketing campaign continues to ratchet up the tension without giving away the entire narrative to viewers.
Ahead of the second trailer's release, fans were treated to a spine-chilling livestream on the film's viral MaybrookMissing website, which showed the same creepy footage of a group dining at a table on a loop with subtle changes each time. What does it all mean? We have absolutely no idea, but it won't be long until all is revealed.
Production
Following the runaway success of Barbarian, Cregger immediately began work on “horror epic” Weapons, which entered the market in 2023. It prompted a bidding war between Netflix, New Line Cinema, TriStar Pictures, and Universal Pictures, with whom Jordan Peele's company Monkeypaw Productions bid alongside.
New Line secured the rights to the film, with principal photography kicking off in Atlanta in May 2024. The film was initially slated for a January 2026 release, which was bumped up to this summer due to mounting buzz surrounding the film. Marketing began with the launch of the website MaybrookMissing.net, which shares the fictional news report of the 17 local children who went missing at exactly 2:17 am on the same night in the town of Maybrook.
There is also a link to a faux news article about the events of Barbarian, which could suggest that the films take place in the same universe, but Cregger has declined to confirm one way or the other if this is the case.
