Parijat Ghosh 
Warner Bros.’ newly released horror thriller, Weapons, came to theaters on 8th August, 2025. The Zach Cregger-directed movie has since then taken the horror watchers by storm. Why, you might ask. Weapons is not a very conclusive movie that you can forget after watching. Most viewers were expecting narratives, symbolisms, and all the deeper meanings each scene in the movie carries. But, Weapons certainly doesn’t spoon-feed the audience with any one-sided meanings. Let’s talk more about it.
Movie Success & Audience Divide
Box Office Hit
Cregger’s Weapons had an opening release day that garnered around $70 million. That is more than that of Fantastic Four and Freaky Friday, all on a $38 million budget. So, if you’re still ot sold on watching it, do reconsider.
Critics & Audience
Weapons has a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it a rare film that has been so successful in the Horror genre. It makes sense because in the past few years, Horror has been anything but moving. The same mysteries, plots, jumpscares, and all that jazz.
Viewers say that anthology storytelling is far more receptive than just tying a story to one character or family. In this case, Weapons’ imagery, a collection of incidents, and the storyline focus on two main things: Fear & Uncertainty.
Is There A Deeper Dig In Weapons?
The Creator’s Verdict
When the Guardian interviewed Cregger, his response was as direct as it could be. He said that the movie can be up for interpretation, but he himself doesn’t push any specific narrative in the movie. He tags the film for a clean horror that evokes fears, not lectures the audience into taking reference from any real-life events.
The Viewers’ Verdict
Everyone who has watched Weapons says that the movie’s imagery is too upfront not to have deeper meanings. For instance:
- The School Shooting Sequence: The opening scene of a shooting in a high school is the first tick of the assumed story layering. It happens almost in a haze, yet the painful scene puts up the scary scenario of gun violence in America.
- Galdys Lily’s Mind Control: Very significantly, the witch’s control over kids and families, turning them into violent creatures, is again another cultural reference. People think it directly portrays the psychological manipulation of common people that happens through politics, media, and cultural aspects.
- Fragmented Stories: Weapons revolves around a bunch of stories that connect into one single subject of the plot. The anthological storytelling, for some viewers, is a reference to how violence grows into communities from smaller fragments.
- Religious & Occult References: The various scenes of strange rituals and even stranger wall symbols lead people to think that the movie portrays the occult culture vividly. There are theories that most of these scenes reference witchcraft, cult practices, and unseen evils that shape human behavior.
Keeping aside the need for some assumed meanings of the movie, there is no reason why you shouldn’t watch Weapons. It is one of those once-in-a-lifetime, highly rated horror films that has made the crowd think and dig deeper.
If you have any questions regarding Weapons, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe, and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
