Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Film | August 11, 2025
Weapons pulled in a whopping $42 million this weekend, earning rave reviews (95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and an A- Cinemascore — a rarity for horror, matched this year only by Sinners. Zach Cregger’s film deserves the praise. It’s a brilliant horror flick: suspenseful, gory, packed with gleeful jump scares, and hilariously twisted. I liked it. A lot.
As a mystery, though, Weapons fell short for me. Normally, that wouldn’t matter in a horror movie — I’m here for the kills and thrills, not the whodunnit. But ever since the first full trailer dropped over three months ago, the marketing has hinged on its central question: What happened to those 17 kids from the same class, all of whom vanished one night at precisely 2:17 a.m.? The film structures itself around that mystery, telling the story from multiple perspectives and cutting off each viewpoint right before the answer, then resetting the timeline with the next character.
It’s a blast, and it kept me hooked right up to the gloriously chaotic finale. I must’ve mouthed “WHAT THE F**K” to my son half a dozen times, always a good sign for a horror movie.
But that burning question — what the hell happened to the kids? — eventually needed an answer. And like so many mysteries too good to be true, the reveal didn’t quite live up to the setup. Cregger’s messy, energetic ending helped mask the letdown in the moment, but the disappointment lingered after the credits rolled.
Spoilers
What Happened to the Kids?
At 2:17 on the night in question, 17 kids really did step out their front doors and run in a straight line, arms out like heat-seeking planes, to one location: the home of the 18th classmate, Alex — the only one who didn’t disappear.
Alex’s Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) had recently moved in. She’s deeply unsettling — Jason nailed it in his review when he predicted she’d become an instant horror icon and a go-to Halloween costume. In the film, she’s dying but wields a witch-like power. Using a drop of her blood, a personal object from each child, and a ritual involving a bell and a stick, she casts a spell. The moment she snaps the stick, the kids fall into a trance and march into her basement, where Alex feeds them canned chicken soup for days to keep them alive.
That’s the how. The why? Murkier. Somehow, their presence keeps Aunt Gladys alive — at least until Julia Garner’s and Josh Brolin’s characters track them down. Then Alex, using the same magic, turns the kids loose on Aunt Gladys. The finale is a riot: 17 feral children chasing an old woman through the neighborhood before tearing her apart. It’s pure, gory fun.
As fantastic as Aunt Gladys is — easily the best horror villain since Nic Cage in Longlegs — the mystery’s resolution boils down to “a creepy woman with a stick who can turn people into human weapons.” There’s no deeper meaning, just a cool supernatural hook. It feels very Stephen King: a killer premise with an answer that leans on the supernatural without offering a richer rationale. There’s no real commentary on schools, violence, or much of anything else, just a dying woman in a red wig who doesn’t want to go.
I wouldn’t call Weapons elevated horror, and that’s fine. As a straight horror experience, it’s outstanding. As a showcase for Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys, it’s unbeatable. But as the payoff to a months — long marketing hook - what happened to the kids — it’s disappointingly eh.
