Every horror fan knows that feeling, sitting in a dark theater, waiting for the lights to dim, and getting prepared for the jump scare you’ll still think about later that night. But maybe, sometimes, the scariest stories aren’t the ones written for the screen. Sometimes, they come straight from real life and leave us horrified. And that’s exactly what makes Zach Cregger’s ‘Weapons’ so haunting.
It’s got everything horror fans crave: a spooky small-town setting, a great cast, and a mystery that only gets darker by the second. But once you know the source of this darkness, I can bet you won’t be able to forget this movie for a while.
Zach Cregger: Comedy Roots To Horror Spotlight
Before ‘Weapons‘ even hit theaters, Cregger had already made a name for himself in the genre world with ‘Barbarian.’ That breakout hit turned him into Hollywood’s new horror darling. Calls from the studios weren’t stopping, fans were constantly looking him up, and suddenly, the guy who once made comedy sketches was sitting at the top of the scary-movie food chain.
But with success came tragedy. In 2021, Trevor Moore, Cregger’s best friend and creative partner from ‘The Whitest Kids U’Know,’ died in a tragic accident. The two had built their careers together, from university stages, and losing Moore felt like losing part of himself. So while the world was applauding ‘Barbarian,’ Cregger was trying to figure out how to live. And that’s when ‘Weapons‘ started taking its roots.
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After seeing the trailer, ‘Weapons‘ seemed like classic horror, where seventeen kids vanish without a trace. Much like ‘Stranger Things‘, but with a very different plot. Families panic, rumors go around, and fear and nightmares dominate. But when you see the movie, everything adds up, and eventually, you start to realize it’s not a spooky story anymore.
Even though Cregger tried his best and even resisted it as he was tired of grief-driven horror himself, the film ended up “autobiographical in a lot of ways.” Maybe grief has a way of sneaking in, and even he didn’t realize when his own loss started to show in the script.
While writing, he was torn about whether to move ahead with the script. He even thought about pulling it back, worried that audiences wouldn’t want that much raw emotion. But then fellow director Ari Aster reminded him that the personal touches were what made it work. That gave Cregger the much-needed push to lean all the way in.
Writing ‘Weapons’ Through The Pain
Once Cregger stopped fighting it, the script of ‘Weapons‘ came with its flow. And all he remembers is a blur of writing that lasted just two weeks. He opened with a line, “This is a true story.” And, from there, he let the mystery flow like he was writing a diary of his own grief and nightmares.
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Now, looking back, he described the process in the bluntest way possible; it felt like vomiting. Messy, unavoidable, and strangely cathartic. Given his dark sense of humor, he even joked that audiences still happily buy tickets, hire babysitters, and shell out for snacks just to watch the result of his spilling his trauma onto the screen.
Sure, ‘Weapons‘ is a small-town horror story about missing kids, but it doesn’t end there. Parallel with it goes on one man’s attempt to make sense of the biggest loss of his life. Maybe that’s why the horror feels so real.
