Topline
“Weapons,” a new horror movie opening in theaters next week, earned a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes from its first reviews, after the movie’s eerie marketing campaign—including a video of more than two hours of surveillance footage—went viral online.
"Weapons," from director Zach Cregger, opens in theaters next week. (Photo by Alberto E. ... More
“Weapons” has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on its first 11 reviews, meaning all critics so far have given the movie a positive review.
“Weapons,” which opens in theaters Aug. 8, is a horror film about an entire classroom full of children vanishing in the middle of the night, except for one, according to distributor Warner Bros.
The movie was written and directed by Zach Cregger, who previously wrote and directed the horror movie “Barbarian” (2022), which was also well-received and has a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Weapons” stars Josh Brolin as the father of one of the missing children and Julia Garner as the children’s teacher.
Deadline projected “Weapons” could earn $25 million or more in its opening weekend, a solid start for an original horror movie.
Lyvie Scott, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic for Inverse, said “Weapons” is “haunting and cerebral as it is almost cartoonishly funny,” praising the movie’s balance of “gory shocks” and “visceral physical comedy.” Chris Evangelista, a critic for the horror movie website SlashFilm, said the film “taps into very modern fears without laying it on too thick,” stating the movie portrays paranoia and fear parents may feel after watching cable news. Evangelista called “Weapons” “one of the best horror movies of the year” and said Cregger is “one of the most exciting voices in the genre right now.” In a five-star review for the horror publication Dread Central, critic Josh Korngut praised the cast performances and called the movie “near-perfect,” calling it “shocking, original, and grotesquely funny all at once.” Some critics, including Rotten Tomatoes-approved Matt Neglia, felt the movie lost steam at the end, stating Cregger “missed an opportunity to tell a story that is more emotionally rich and relatable” and opted for a “facile solution.”
“Weapons” garnered attention in the spring for a marketing campaign some movie publications compared to that of the “Blair Witch Project” for its use of found footage and its realistic portrayal of the marketing materials. Warner Bros. published a video of surveillance footage on YouTube, titled “2025_░_░_06:17AM.mov,” which portrays children running through town in the middle of the night. The video is exactly two hours and 17 minutes long, similar to the time the children disappear in the movie: 2:17 a.m. The studio also published an online website, MaybrookMissing.com, which is fashioned like a local news outlet and contains news articles about the children who disappear from town in the film.
The bidding war to secure the rights to “Weapons” was reportedly intense, with multiple production companies making offers. New Line Cinema, a production company owned by Warner Bros., won the auction in January 2023 after making a $38 million offer, with Cregger earning $10 million and the ability to decide the final cut, a deal the Hollywood Reporter called “unprecedented” for a filmmaker who had only directed one movie before. Other companies that made bids include Universal Pictures and Monkeypaw Productions, the production company owned by horror director-producer Jordan Peele. Deadline reported Peele parted ways with his management shortly after losing the auction.
Summer Box Office Opening Forecasts For ‘Fantastic Four’, ‘Weapons’, ‘Freakier Friday’ & More (Deadline)
New Line Wins Intense Auction for ‘Weapons,’ the New Movie From ‘Barbarian’ Filmmaker Zach Cregger (Hollywood Reporter)