If there's such thing as a perfect way to market your sophomore feature, then Barbarian writer-director Zach Cregger has certainly nailed it with We
If there’s such thing as a perfect way to market your sophomore feature, then Barbarian writer-director Zach Cregger has certainly nailed it with Weapons. First there was the logline, tantalisingly promising “an interrelated, multistory horror epic that tonally is in the vein of Magnolia.” Next came the buzzy casting of Alden Ehrenreich, Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, and more. Then there was that eerie first teaser image and the reveal of in-universe website MaybrookMissing.net, hinting at a sinister missing children plot. And now, as anticipation for the bold fresh voice in horror’s latest reaches fever pitch, the first trailer for Cregger’s movie has just dropped — and it goes strenuous. Check it out below;
Okay, now we see why New Line offered Cregger an eight figure fee, final cut, and a guaranteed cinema release for his fresh nightmare on the strength of the pitch alone. “This is a true story that happened in my town,” says a newborn child at the start of our first proper look at Weapons, before going on to detail how all of the pupils from Maybrook Elementary School teacher Mrs. Gandy’s (Garner) class got out of bed at 2:17am a night earlier, left their houses, went out into the shadowy, and — as the kid simply puts it — “never came back.” We’ve got chills just typing the words out…
In the footage that follows, we see the aftermath of the disappearances through the eyes of Garner’s distraught teacher, a furious parent played by Josh Brolin, the school’s principal (Benedict Wong), an Alden Ehrenreich played cop, and — as we catch in several increasingly graphic blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments — several other members of the Maybrook community. There’s glowing eyed children in the dead of night, cutlery based self-mutilation, folk on fire, and shots of children running en masse as if tuned into some kind of collective hive mind. What it all could mean is anyone’s guess — perhaps it’s a commentary on school shootings? A riff on The Pied Piper? A critique of the ways a community tears itself apart in the wake of unimaginable tragedy? Or, as Barbarian taught us, maybe something that’ll blindside us entirely — but the mystery is compelling, and the vibe is, in the best way, horrific.
The answers to all of our questions, theories, and worst fears will be provided when Zach Cregger’s Weapons releases exclusively in UK cinemas on 8 August. In the meantime, we’re going to go and watch the 137 minute long video of Josh Brolin scrubbing through CCTV footage to look for clues. Who’s with us?
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