Weapons: Looking Camp Right in the Eyes of Horror
- Yasarah Ahmad
- Oct 15
- 4 min read
Zach Cregger's second feature takes summer by the storm. Our writer, Sara, unpacks how Weapons shattered expectations and maybe even convinced us to buy a red wig for Halloween...
What was the movie of the summer, and why was it Weapons (2025)?
The unexpected horror film that took everyone by surprise, Weapons became the film people couldn’t stop talking about. Zach Cregger’s second feature felt like a breath of fresh air in a year full of sequels and franchise reboots. It’s scary, strange, oddly funny and arguably one of the most unpredictable horror films in recent memory. Even the critically acclaimed horror director Jordan Peele expressed his disappointment when his managers failed to secure the rights to the film. So, what exactly was the hype around Weapons?
Weapons follows the mystery of seventeen children from a classroom of eighteen, vanishing at exactly 2:17 a.m. What follows breaks free of the usual horror clichés, layers of suspense, and unexpected humour across multiple character perspectives… with a surprising dash of camp.
What Went Down in Weapons?
The film begins with the perspective of Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), the teacher of the missing kids, whose life unravels as all fingers are suddenly pointed at her. Ms. Gandy desperately tries to reach out to the only remaining student, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), who, suspiciously enough, refuses to speak to her. With nothing to prove her innocence, she’s suddenly the town witch.
But we don’t just see Justine’s story. As we are in the middle of following her traces, the camera cuts to black and another character’s name fades in. This is where Weapons stands out — Zach Cregger divides the story into character-driven chapters. Audiences watch narratives unfold through various perspectives, and Cregger does so in a way that never feels repetitive. We meet Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), a father convinced to seek the truth; Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), the fresh-out-of-AA cop; James (Austin Abrams, not ‘that guy from Euphoria’), the hilarious and twitchy junkie with a purpose; and Marcus (Benedict Wong), the school principal trying his best. Each chapter adds another layer to the story, showcasing the different situations each character faces until everything builds towards a shocking and unexpectedly emotional climax. It’s a perfect puzzle of a horror film.
The Themes and Imagery
There are countless theories people have come up with to make sense of Weapons, but the standout here is trauma. One of the film’s strongest emotional undertones is its shared grief. The grief lingers everywhere. The image that haunted me most was in Archer’s dream, where a rifle was found floating mid-air. Cregger never explains it, but fans online see it as an allegory for school shootings and the way that kind of trauma lingers on victims’ families. It feels like a community mourning over something that can’t be put into words.
The film also plays with the idea of parasitism, a theme that struck me because of how subtly it foreshadowed Aunt Gladys. It first appears in a flashback of Ms. Gandy’s lesson, where the word “parasite” was written on the whiteboard as she asks the children if they know any parasitic creatures. Afterwards, it reappears in the nature documentary that Marcus and his husband are watching. Once you realise what Aunt Gladys has been up to, those little moments fall into place. You then find yourself thinking, “Oh my god, she was the parasite they were hinting at all along!”
Aunt Gladys: Horror’s New Camp Icon? (Spoiler Alert)
Speaking of the clown-like woman with red hair and porcelain skin, Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) is the film’s secret weapon. Her ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ costuming and theatrical makeup are precisely why many are calling Weapons “campy.” Some users online even deen her as “Evil Chappell Roan”. And honestly? Fair enough.
So what is “camp,” anyway? It’s a style that embraces exaggeration and can be characterised by an aesthetic that is eccentric and fun. Weapons leans fully into camp whenever Aunt Gladys shows up as her extravagant self. From her colourful outfits to her overly enthusiastic persona, there’s just something so entrancing about her whenever you lay eyes on her. And personally, that’s camp.
In some scenes, she manages to bring out her own sense of bizarreness in her line deliveries, that’s both terrifying and humorous. One that’s stuck in my head is her visit to Marcus’s house. She bursts in, gushes, “Oh! I absolutely love this house!” — then everything goes off the rails as she practically demolishes everything that’s warm inside it. You’re deeply unsettled by her actions but you can't look away. Among all the other villains from horror films released this year, she may seem harmless, but trust me when I say her campiness only makes her scarier!
Final Thoughts
So, circling back to the question I asked earlier, what exactly was the hype around Weapons? Maybe it’s widely loved because of how intricate its themes are — the way it weaves grief, violence, and even camp into something that’s horrifying and stunning. Or maybe it’s because it told a story while putting you in different pairs of shoes as the film progresses. Whatever it is, Zach Cregger took a risk by mixing horror with humour, and it worked.
I remember laughing along with the audience two nights in a row during one of the film’s final and most iconic moments. It’s an experience you just have to be a part of in the cinema — who knew a simple car door unlocking could get everyone gasping?
Weapons didn’t reinvent the horror genre per se, but it did remind us why we love it: because horror can be terrifying, funny, emotional, and totally unhinged all at once.
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