Barbarian (watch it HERE) writer/director Zach Cregger has assembled a strong cast for his mysterious horror project called Weapons, including Julia Garner (Ozark), Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo), Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange), Amy Madigan (Antlers), Austin Abrams (Euphoria), June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie), and Cary Christopher (Days of Our Lives)… and we’re going to have the chance to see that cast face the horrors Cregger has conjured up when Weapons reaches theatres on August 8th. While we wait, Cregger has let it be known that he aimed to make this a fun movie, “not a grim, morose slog.”
Most details about Weapons are shrouded in mystery. It has been said that it’s “an interrelated, multistory horror epic” that’s tonally in the vein of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, and the story revolves around the disappearance of elementary school kids in a small town. Here’s the official synopsis: When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
Cregger, who wrote the script without an outline and let the story evolve as he went, previously told Entertainment Weekly that the mystery of the missing children “is going to propel you through at least half of the movie, but that is not the movie. The movie will fork and change and reinvent and go in new places. It doesn’t abandon that question, believe me, but that’s not the whole movie at all. By the midpoint, we’ve moved on to way crazier sh*t than that.“
Speaking with Empire, Cregger said, “[It’s] a fun movie. It’s funny, it’s scary, it’s inviting. It’s not a grim, morose slog. And yet the story it tells is really f*cked up.” He described Weapons as a creatively ambitious movie that’s a lot bigger and weirder than Barbarian. “Barbarian was an exploration of social themes; [it] was me looking at the world around me. This is more an exploration of my own personal sh*t, for lack of a better word. Weapons is me looking within, and working on myself.“
I’m glad to hear that he aimed to make Weapons a fun movie. Barbarian was a fun movie and it was the fun horror movies of the ’80s that got me into the genre in the first place. I’m not really into most things that could be described as grim, morose slogs.
Are you glad to hear that Weapons takes the fun route? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
