Director Zach Cregger is quickly establishing himself as one of the most exciting voices in horror. The comedian-turned-scare merchant makes demented flicks that are as terrifying as they are original, full of twists and turns and plenty of surprises. With “Weapons,” he’s delivered a twisted suburban nightmare that tackles the harrowing subject matter of missing children, and let’s just say the story ventures to some wild places. Much like his previous horror shocker “Barbarian” (one of the best films of 2022), “Weapons” is a mystery that proves original horror is alive and well, and any future movie with Cregger’s name attached to it has our attention.
The filmmaker’s star hasn’t always shone bright, however, as his debut directorial feature was a bomb. Back in 2009, he and Trevor Moore co-wrote and directed “Miss March,” a raunchy sex comedy about a man who wakes up after a four-year coma to discover that his high school sweetheart is now a Playmate. Determined to win her back, he and his best friend embark on a road trip to visit the Playboy Mansion, meeting Hugh Hefner along the way.
Sadly, “Miss March” failed to generate the same buzz as “Road Trip,” “Sex Drive,” and other movies about horndogs driving across the country, as it boasts a dismal 5% score on Rotten Tomatoes and bombed at the box office. The film’s poor performance almost killed Cregger’s directorial career as well, as he spent years struggling in the Hollywood wilderness until “Barbarian” rejuvenated his career. ” What’s more, neither he nor Moore were interested in making “Miss March” in the first place — so what prompted them to do it?
Miss March was Zach Cregger’s director-for-hire project
Before he became known as a horror auteur, Zach Cregger was part of “The Whitest Kids U’Know” comedy troupe with Trevor Moore, Sam Brown, Timmy Williams, and Darren Trumeter. The comedians even had their own sketch show, which aired on Fuse and IFC from 2007 until 2011, and their efforts caught the attention of Fox, who approached Cregger and Moore about writing, directing, and starring in “Miss March.” As Cregger told CinemaBlend:
“It wasn’t something we were interested in doing immediately. It’s not exactly what we imagined coming out of the gate doing. But the idea of the coma and the Playmate had some appeal, so we decided to treat it as a writing exercise, to see if we could do something within the genre. We tinkered around with that a lot.”
It’s clear “Miss March” didn’t appeal to Cregger’s sensibilities, so no one can blame him for failing to knock a juvenile sex comedy out of the park. However, at least he hasn’t forgotten about his comedic roots, as his horror flicks are ghoulishly funny in their own weird way. Not only that, but he remained best friends with Moore after their careers took them in different paths, and their relationship informed “Weapons” to some degree, albeit for heartbreaking reasons.
Weapons was inspired by the loss of Zach Cregger’s Miss March co-director
Zach Cregger’s friendship with his “Miss March” co-director dates back to their days as students at New York’s School of Visual Arts. After meeting through a mutual friend, he and Trevor Moore went on to make TV shows and movies together, while still remaining close behind the scenes. But Moore died in a car accident while Cregger was still working on “Barbarian,” and the tragedy took an emotional toll on him. While speaking to Rolling Stone, Cregger revealed that he threw himself into writing to process his grief, and that’s when the story for “Weapons” started taking shape. In his own words:
“I wanted to do something honest, and I found that as I kept writing, and the more I identified with all of the people I was writing about, the more this became something like an honest diary of my inner s***. It’s funny, I was talking to Ari Aster about this, and was like, ‘I don’t know about the personal stuff.’ And he was like, ‘The personal stuff is what makes this work. Don’t be ashamed of it.”
“Miss March” might be the most maligned movie in Cregger’s oeuvre, but it has a small connection to one of his best in “Weapons.” While it’s sad to comprehend that the horror hit was inspired by the tragedy of Cregger losing his old colleague and buddy, “Weapons'” existence is a reminder that art can be therapeutic, no matter how wild it is.
