Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema have officially released the first full trailer for Weapons, the highly anticipated second feature from Barbarian filmmaker Zach Cregger.
Following a cryptic teaser that sparked a wave of speculation, the full trailer plunges audiences into a sinister new world where the boundary between reality and nightmare blurs, and a town’s darkest fears take on a horrifying new form.
A poster and a series of chilling promotional stills were released alongside the trailer, giving fans a broader and far more disturbing view of what awaits when Weapons hits theaters on August 8, 2025.
A Town’s Midnight Terror: The Sinister Disappearance at 2:17 A.M.
The trailer opens in a hushed, unnerving tone, led by the whispery voice of a child recounting the chilling events of one fateful night. “At 2:17 a.m.,” the voice says, “every student in Mrs. Gandy’s classroom woke up, got out of bed, walked downstairs, and into the dark… and they never came back.”
It’s a premise that immediately unsettles an entire class of children vanishing at the exact moment, without warning, without a trace.
Julia Garner (Ozark, The Assistant) stars as Mrs. Gandy, the teacher at the center of this unspeakable mystery. Though traumatized, she quickly becomes a figure of suspicion, especially in the eyes of grieving parent Ben (played by Josh Brolin), who fixates on her as the cause of his son’s disappearance. As fear spreads through the community, Benedict Wong’s headmaster character offers a piece of advice that feels less like concern and more like an omen: “You should take some time off.”
But the horror is only just beginning.
From Mystery to Madness: A Story That Mutates and Multiplies
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cregger revealed that the classroom mystery is only the film’s starting point. “That mystery is going to propel you through at least half of the movie,” he explained. “But that is not the movie. The movie will evolve and change, reinvent itself, and go to new places. It doesn’t abandon that question, believe me, but by the midpoint, we’ve moved on to way crazier sh*t than that.”
That “crazier sh*t” makes itself known in a series of increasingly disturbing visuals. In rapid, almost dreamlike flashes, the trailer bombards the viewer with alarming images: ghostly, clown-faced children wandering in the dark; a woman repeatedly stabbing herself in the face with a fork; pale, dead-eyed figures possibly the children, aged into something other crashing through a window; and someone vomiting a black, tar-like sludge into another person’s mouth.
There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of what appears to be the long-rumored female clown, a figure hinted at in early CinemaCon footage but conspicuously absent in the teaser. Here, she is nothing more than a haunting blur, a grotesque presence that hints at the deeper rot festering beneath the film’s surface.
Haunted Performances: A Cast Plunged Into Psychological Dread
The ensemble cast brings together some of Hollywood’s most dynamic performers, all of whom seem primed to embody characters on the edge of reason. Josh Brolin delivers a grounded but volatile performance as a grieving father driven to desperation. Julia Garner’s Mrs. Gandy is caught between guilt, confusion, and sheer terror. Benedict Wong, always a commanding presence, exudes quiet dread as an authority figure who knows more than he says.
They’re joined by Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), Austin Abrams (Euphoria), Cary Christopher, and screen legend Amy Madigan in undisclosed but crucial roles. As the trailer suggests, every character in Weapons is walking a tightrope between the known world and reality twisted by something dark, ancient, and possibly inhuman.
Building the Nightmare: The Creative Forces Behind the Camera
Cregger not only writes and directs but also produces the film alongside Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, J.D. Lifshitz, and Raphael Margules. Executive producers are Michelle Morrissey and Brolin himself. Behind the camera is a team of creatives whose collective vision is already sending shockwaves through the horror community.
Director of photography Larkin Seiple (Everything Everywhere All at Once) delivers imagery that is both artful and deeply unsettling. Production designer Tom Hammock (You’re Next, The Guest) crafts a world of decaying suburban normalcy. Editor Joe Murphy shapes the chaos with razor precision, while costume designer Trish Sommerville (Gone Girl, The Hunger Games) layers meaning into every detail of the characters’ appearances.
The score, composed by Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay, and Zach Cregger himself, weaves a dissonant, ghostly tapestry of sound that lingers long after the trailer ends.
More Than a Horror Film: Theories, Themes, and the Unknown
On its surface, Weapons tells the story of a small town reeling from the unexplained disappearance of nearly an entire class of children. But based on the trailer and Cregger’s cryptic commentary, the film seems to be about far more: a descent into collective psychosis, repressed trauma, or perhaps even supernatural punishment. Is it a ghost story? A cult thriller? A cosmic horror film in disguise?
The truth may be far stranger than anything audiences are prepared for. If Barbarian blurs the lines of narrative structure and genre convention, Weapons looks poised to shatter them completely.
The Final Countdown: Release Date and What to Expect
Presented by New Line Cinema and produced by Subconscious, Vertigo Entertainment, and Boulderlight Pictures, Weapons is shaping up to be one of the most original and terrifying films of 2025. With its unique structure, shifting narratives, and escalating terror, it promises to push the boundaries of the horror genre, much like Barbarian did before it.
Weapons arrive in theaters on August 8, 2025.
Whatever you think this movie is, it’s not that. And by the time the final reel spins, the only thing you may be certain of is that something watched you watching it.
