Spoiler Alert: Spoilers follow for WeaponsIt’s time to call it: 2025 has been the best year for horror in ages. This weekend sees the release ofWeapons, the sophomore feature byZach Cregger, co-founder ofThe Whitest Kids U’ Knowand director of 2022’s excellentBarbarian. Like Cregger’s debut,Weaponsis best experienced going in knowing as little as possible, as the twists and reveals are expertly paced and practically demand to be watched in a packed auditorium.
It’s a huge leap forward for Creggeron a technical level; with a budget almost 10 times bigger thanBarbarian, he displays striking confidence and control with the camera while expertly balancing screen time between a stacked ensemble cast. But it’s also a much more ambitious work;whereBarbariansees Cregger gleefully satirizing gender roles and relations,Weaponsexplores grief on a personal and communal level, and the lasting effects of trauma faced in childhood. On that level, it actually shares a surprising amount in common with Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 masterpiece,Magnolia.
‘Weapons’ Took Heavy Influence From ‘Magnolia’
Indeed,Zach Cregger has spoken openly about the influenceMagnoliahad when he was writingWeapons. He described in an interview withEntertainment Weekly, “I love that movie. I love that kind of bold scale. It gave me permission when I was writing this to shoot for the stars and make it an epic. I wanted a horror epic, and so I tried to do that.”
Obviously, the clearest parallels between the two films come fromtheir ensemble-driven structures, which see their characters interact and overlap in unexpected ways. One of the subplots sees Alden Ehrenreich’s character, police officer Paul, struggling in his romantic life, much like Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) inMagnolia, while similarly failing to meet the demands of his job (Cregger has confirmed that Paul’s mustache was intended as a shout-out to Reilly’s character).
ButMagnoliainfluenced Cregger’s directing every bit as much as his writing. In an interview on theNext Best Picture podcast, he detailed the opening sequence forWeapons:
“The cold open ofMagnoliais another montage with really energetic camera moves and zooms on a dolly, and it’s just never stationary. And so, my cinematographer, Larkin Seiple, and I talked aboutMagnoliaall the time while we were putting that sequence together.”
Of course, it’s not a perfect one-to-one comparison. WhileMagnolia’s story is told linearly while jumping between its different characters,Weaponsunfolds episodically, with each segment focusing on a different main character, and often repeating events from another’s perspective. In that regard,it feels akin toRashomon, as each individual angle gives a small puzzle piece to a bigger picture.
But the clearestparallels betweenWeaponsandMagnoliamanifest thematically. Again, the overlap isn’t flawless, as Paul Thomas Anderson’s picture explored chance and bizarre coincidences in everyday life, while Cregger explicitly dives into an exploration of grief (it’s also a sadly personal work for him). Yet despite these differences, the similarities between the two films are even more startling, namely in their exploration of cruelty to children and how even well-intentioned adults can exacerbate the problem.
Several major characters inMagnoliahad traumatic childhoods. William H. Macy’s Donnie Smith was a child prodigy and game show contestant, but his parents stole his winnings. Young Stanley Spector is the newest contestant on said show, but his father is emotionally abusive. Claudia (Melora Walters) was molested by her father when she was young, and she’s since developed an addiction. And Frank “T.J.” Mackey (Tom Cruise, his best performance) was abandoned by his father and watched his mother succumb to cancer, leaving him with lifelong resentment and powerlessness that he hides behind the macho persona he’s created for himself.
The big twist inWeaponscentralizes this conceit. In the final segment, we see events from the perspective of Alex (Cary Christopher), the only child who didn’t disappear. As the elderly Gladys (Amy Madigan) gets welcomed into his home, he comes to realize that she’s a witch when she puts his parents in a trance. Gladys threatens to kill them if he ever speaks about her, leaving him suffering in silence as she proves responsible for the disappearances, summoning Alex’s classmates to her home so she can siphon off their youth and rejuvenate herself.
Mass cruelty to children is committed under the nose of a town, and the story’s tragedy is that it festers becausethe adults in Alex’s life are either ignorant of his trauma, self-involved, or scapegoating their anger at the wrong target. Thus, it’s poetic that Alex is the one to defeat Gladys, turning the hypnotized children against her in a deliciously gory climax. Much like how Stanley inMagnoliabroke the cycle of cruelty by giving voice to his trauma and confronting his father, Alex is the only figure capable of forcing his town to face down an unspoken societal evil.
Perhaps most fittingly, likeMagnolia,Weaponsis a classic example of a big swing for the fences from an exciting new filmmaker given a blank check. Much like Anderson’s opus, it pays off for Cregger in spades.Weaponsis now playing in theaters, whileMagnoliais available to rent onPrime VideoorApple TV.
