Weapons: A Great Fusion of Horror and Mystery

Courtesy of New Line Cinema

The 2020s seem to be a great decade for horror so far, and 2025 has made it better. Ryan Coogler’s new movie, Sinners, is one of the best movies of the year, and now Weapons has joined it. Directed and written by Zach Cregger, Weapons stars Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan. The movie’s plot is that one night, all but one kid in a specific third-grade class goes missing, and over a month later, the town is still looking for them. Some people suspect the teacher, played by Julia Garner, is behind it. Some people feel something is off with the family of the one boy who didn’t disappear.

Weapons is the perfect fusion of horror and mystery, two genres I enjoy a lot. I would make the case that while the horror element is amazing, it’s the mystery element I enjoyed the most. Watching the characters try to figure out what happened to this class, why the one kid’s family is acting strange, got me invested into the story. There are so many questions that the movie gives with this mystery, yet it’s never overwhelming. What happened to these kids? Why was it only this class out of all the classes at that school? Why was this one boy named Alex the only kid to not go missing? Why specifically did the kids leave their house at 2:17 pm? Why is Alex’s family acting so off? Weapons does not make it easy for the audience to answer these questions, and that’s what makes it a great mystery movie. Paying attention to the details shown in each character’s perspective is how the audience starts to put the pieces together. By the end of the movie, these questions are answered.

As mentioned  before, the horror element works so well. In the first half of Weapons, the horror is slower to build up, but still manages to do its job with some jump scares. The kids running in a trance will be compared to Naruto’s run from the popular anime and manga series Naruto, yet the movie gives it this chilling feeling. Some of it works well in dream sequences that some of the characters have. The second half of Weapons goes all out with the horror element and the fate of some characters. The ending is probably the craziest ending to a horror movie I have ever seen. The way the story is told was pulled off so well. It’s split into chapters named after the characters to show the perspectives of those specific characters, what they are doing, how they are investigating these disappearances and weird happenings, and also what happens to them in the end. The town setting is the perfect setting for a movie like Weapons. It’s not too small nor is it too big.

The acting in Weapons is some of the best acting I have seen in a modern-day horror movie. The standouts are Julia Garner and Josh Brolin. Julia Garner does well in playing this teacher who is struggling with her class going missing and being blamed for it. The movie shows her struggles and fears, and later reveals she’s had a rough past before becoming a teacher at this school, which makes it understandable as to why the parents would suspect her. Josh Brolin does well in playing this father to one of the missing kids. He’s doing his own investigating and notices the odd patterns in how the kids ran and experiences these weird dreams. Like the other parents, he thinks the teacher is behind it, but soon learns something bigger and stranger is happening. It’s also Amy Madigan as Alex’s aunt, who stands out with her performance. The movie builds up her character, and how she’s connected to all of this is executed well.

Overall, Weapons is one of the best movies of 2025. The acting is great, and the stakes feel high. The combination of horror and mystery is pulled off well. The second half goes all out on the horror. The way the movie is filmed is great, and if you love horror, this is the movie for you. My final grade for Weapons is an A. Not only is it one of the best horror movies of the year, it’s one of the best movies of 2025. What are your thoughts on Weapons? Let us know in the comments below.