‘Weapons’ Director Zach Cregger Gets Candid About the Personal Pain That Shaped His New Film

Zach Cregger, the comedy veteran turned horror darling behind 2022’s Barbarian, is back with a chilling new film that cuts far deeper than scares. His latest project, Weapons, isn’t just a mystery thriller with eerie disappearances and surreal twists—it’s a personal journey born from real heartbreak.

A Horror Movie Fueled by Grief

The plot of Weapons centers around the baffling disappearance of 17 elementary school kids who, without warning, all run away from home at the exact same time. But while the premise may sound like classic horror material, what’s really driving the film is something far more intimate: grief.

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Cregger began writing Weapons after the unexpected death of his best friend and longtime collaborator Trevor Moore in 2021. Moore, with whom he co-founded the sketch comedy group The Whitest Kids U’Know, was a massive part of Cregger’s creative and personal life. According to a Polygon interview, the loss was devastating—and the script became a way for him to process the emotions without going down a darker path.

“That chapter of my life was terrible,” Cregger said, “and writing the movie was just me interacting with those feelings in a non-self-destructive way.”

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Though he’s clear that Weapons isn’t a direct metaphor for grief, Cregger acknowledged that the disorienting tone and creeping chaos of the movie reflect the emotional confusion he was experiencing at the time. “I’m exhausted of grief-as-metaphor horror movies,” he said, “but the energy of the grief is in the film.”

A Film Built from the Subconscious

Like Barbarian, Weapons throws traditional storytelling rules out the window. Told in seven separate chapters, the movie weaves through the perspectives of very different characters: a traumatized teacher played by Julia Garner, a heartbroken father played by Josh Brolin, and a disillusioned cop portrayed by Alden Ehrenreich. Slowly, their stories begin to intersect around a shared and mysterious core.

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Rather than outlining everything up front, Cregger leaned hard into a dreamlike writing style, letting the story unfold as it came to him. He credits David Lynch’s transcendental meditation techniques as a major influence on his creative process.

“The first thing I heard was a little girl’s voice telling me the story,” he told HotPress. “And that’s what was written.”

This surreal approach bleeds into the movie itself. One of the film’s strangest and most striking visuals? A floating assault rifle. Cregger said he has no interest in explaining it—and that its mystery gives it even more meaning.

“Knowing I don’t understand it makes it even more important to me,” he said.

From Sketch Comedy to Emotional Storytelling

If you only know Cregger from his early days on IFC with The Whitest Kids U’Know, Weapons might feel like a completely different universe. Back then, Cregger was all about laughs and on-the-spot chaos. But with Weapons, he’s entering a new phase—one where emotion and structure matter just as much as shock and surprise.

“You can follow your subconscious and enjoy it,” he told Polygon, “but eventually it has to be structured.”

That balance of raw emotion and technical discipline is what sets Weapons apart. It’s not just a spooky thriller. It’s a layered, emotional ride with a cast that includes some heavy hitters, all circling a central mystery that refuses easy answers.

Zach Cregger Finds His Voice—Through Pain

With Weapons, Cregger proves he’s no one-hit horror wonder. Instead, he’s cementing his place as a filmmaker with a unique voice, shaped by years of comedy and a profound personal loss. The film may be dark, strange, and sometimes hard to pin down—but that’s exactly the point.

It’s not just a movie about vanishing kids or supernatural visuals. It’s a story about what grief feels like when words aren’t enough. And for Cregger, it’s a tribute to a friend—and a powerful new chapter in a career that’s only just getting started.