There’s something eerie about the suburbs at night. Countless movies (especially from the 1970s) have told us that big cities are scary when the sun goes down, but anyone who lives in a suburban neighborhood can tell you that once the darkness comes creeping in, everything feels slightly off. Walking down an empty suburban street, no sounds except your footfalls and insects humming, the occasional blue glow of a TV flickering in someone’s bedroom window — it’s enough to give you the creeps.

Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” understands this, which is why its opening moments — in which we see several children leave their houses at 2:17 AM and run silently through the dark streets to a destination unknown — are so damn unsettling. Cutting to grainy doorbell cam footage only enhances the menace. Something is very wrong here.

With “Weapons,” Cregger, who helmed the excellent, endlessly surprising “Barbarian,” has put together a film that taps into very modern fears without laying it on too thick. The American landscape is a place currently ruled by distrust and fear, and fear drummed up by confused parents seems to reign supreme. Parents go to town meetings now and shout about fictional things they saw on Fox News, outraged for the sake of being outraged. It’s enough to drive everyone insane. Paranoia is everywhere. “Weapons” finds clever ways to weaponize that. 

After the film’s initial set-up, in which all but one student from the same elementary school class vanishes into the night in the town of Maybrook, Cregger crafts a film that owes a considerable debt to ensemble tales like Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” Like those films, “Weapons” is telling a big, sprawling story from several different points of view, and as the narrative unfolds, we become aware of a much bigger picture. It’s ambitious stuff, and the fact that Cregger pulls it off in a manner that seems almost effortless is a testament to his storytelling skills.

When the kids go missing, everyone wants answers, especially the parents. Since all of the children were part of the same classroom, suspicion falls on teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), a kind but awkward young woman who may or may not have a drinking problem. Ms. Gandy is just as puzzled as everyone else, and starts to do her own sleuthing into the mystery. She’s not alone. Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), the father of one of the missing kids, is convinced Ms. Gandy knows more than she’s saying and he takes it upon himself to start studying the clues. Then there’s local beat cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), who has a connection with Ms. Gandy and some secrets of his own. Among this gaggle of characters, Cregger also throws in the sympathetic school principal (Benedict Wong), a drug addict not above stealing to get his fix (Austin Abrams), and young Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the only kid from Ms. Gandy’s class who didn’t go missing.

To say more would do the film a disservice, because like “Barbarian,” “Weapons” is a movie where the element of surprise is key. Cregger’s script slowly pulls back the curtain, eventually giving us definitive answers as to what is going on, but by the time we get to the truth, “Weapons” has gone to dark, twisted, and surprisingly funny places. Cregger has a background in comedy and has a unique grasp on blending horror and humor. “Weapons” is frequently scary but there are moments (like the ghoulish grand finale) that had me cackling with glee. Horror and comedy are subjective genres, and mashing them together successfully is no easy feat. 

Cregger has only grown as a filmmaker, and his control of mood and atmosphere here is fantastic. He wisely avoids going heavy on jumpscares and instead leans into the mystery of it all — fear of the unknown is something we’re all very familiar with, and “Weapons” exploits that. It also paints an accurate portrait of suburban life, where liquor stores and dive bars share space with finely manicured homesteads. Where there’s always one house that seems unusually dark, unusually quiet, unusually secretive. The suburbs are a lie America tells itself; a place where safety is an illusion and dangerous things are lurking just behind someone’s front door.

“Weapons” also makes the interesting decision to make its characters inherently flawed. Garner’s Justine Gandy is likable and sympathetic but also prone to making a series of unwise choices. To be clear, these aren’t the standard dumb choices so many horror heroines make, but rather choices you and I might make if we were in a similar situation. Then there’s Brolin’s understandably upset father, who refuses to simply sit back and hope the local authorities figure things out. He’s brash and rude and even a bit unlikable, but we can understand where he’s coming from.

Indeed, all the characters who populate “Weapons” feel genuine in a way that might come across as disarming. This has the sneaky effect of making us invested in their stories and worrying about the potentially terrible fates that await them. Praise also must be given to Amy Madigan, who is pitch-perfect in a tricky role that I won’t dare spoil.

Part of what made “Barbarian” so special is the way it kept viewers constantly guessing as to where the story was going. “Weapons” takes a similar approach, although I think it’s important to say that Cregger’s script isn’t cheating or being shocking for the sake of being shocking. There’s a method to this madness, and the film actually loses a slight bit of its power as the last act fills in the blanks and gives us answers as to what’s been going on. At the same time, “Weapons” also wisely leaves certain things intentionally unexplained simply because in the world of horror movies, some things are beyond explanation.

A wonderful mixture of bad vibes and macabre fun, “Weapons” is one of the best horror movies of the year, and further confirmation that writer-director Zach Cregger is one of the most exciting voices in the genre right now. 

/Film Rating: 9 out of 10

“Weapons” opens in theaters on August 8, 2025.