Taking Audiences on Wild and Mysterious Horror Rides with Mistrust at the Centre: Zach Cregger Talks Following Up 'Barbarian' with 'Weapons'

Zach Cregger knows how to keep audiences guessing. The films that viewers think they're sitting down to see when he's behind the lens as a solo director aren't the movies that end up unfurling across the screen — in the most-thrilling way possible. Perhaps that element of surprise is fitting, given that Cregger's career has also enjoyed its own big twist. Before he wrote and directed 2022's Barbarian and now 2025's Weapons, he started out as an actor, debuting in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Next, he helped form comic troupe Whitest Kids U' Know, which took its sketches to TV for five seasons. Comedy flicks College, Miss March and The Civil War on Drugs, the latter two of which he co-helmed and co-penned with fellow WKUK founder Trevor Moore, are also on his resume, as are Love & Air Sex and Date and Switch. Ahead of making two of the 2020s' best horror movies so far, Cregger also featured in sitcoms Friends with Benefits, Guys with Kids, About a Boy and Wrecked.

He doesn't necessarily agree that Weapons fits that surprise setup, however. "Is that true? I don't know," Cregger tells Concrete Playground. "Definitely, I understand that for Barbarian, but I think I take issue with that for Weapons. I think Weapons is a relatively consistent movie. It's just we don't know what the answer is, but it never really seems to change to me." He continues: "to me, it does seem like it maintains a tone throughout. We just don't know where it's going to go".

The mastermind behind the enthralling Josh Brolin (Outer Range)- and Julia Garner (Fantastic Four: The First Steps)-starring film — which deserves to be one of this year's most-talked about trips to the cinema — notes that Weapons "doesn't radically shift genres or anything like that, does it?". He's spot on. But even audiences that've seen the movie's trailers, obsessed over them thanks to their Barbarian affection and know the opening premise won't predict where this wild horror ride takes its story. "Well, it's a mystery. That should be the case," says Cregger, smiling. Sending viewers on an unexpected trip is exactly his aim as a filmmaker.

In both Weapons' sneak peek and the film itself, a child's voice sets the scene. "This is a true story," it starts with, although this is a fictional tale. Those youthful tones and that five-word phrase are where Cregger himself began writing — and also with the idea of a kid telling a campfire story. Initially, he too didn't know where the narrative would then venture.

The rundown from that voice, as told with unnerving calm: "so this one Wednesday is like a normal day for the whole school, but the day was different. Every other class had all their kids, but Mrs Gandy's room was totally empty. And do you know why? Because the night before at 2.17 in the morning, every kid woke up, got out of bed, walked downstairs and into the dark — and they never came back".

In her second horror flick of 2025 after Wolf Man, Garner plays Justine, the Maybrook Elementary teacher mentioned. When 17 children in her class disappear, blame comes her way — both fast and furiously. Brolin portrays Archer Gaff, the angry father of one of the missing kids, who is desperate for answers, quick to embrace the catharsis of pointing fingers wherever he can and also a constant presence at the local police station, because he's adamant that not enough is being done on the investigation. From there, Weapons' cast also spans Alden Ehrenreich (Ironheart) as Paul, one of the small town's cops, who has a link to Justine; Benedict Wong (Bad Genius) as Marcus, the school principal; Cary Christopher (Days of Our Lives) as Alex, the only child in the class in question who doesn't run out into the night; and Austin Abrams (Wolfs) as the looking-for-a-fix James. Each one, like Justine and Archer, earns their own chapter.

As he did in Barbarian, Cregger demonstrates a strong, engaging and devilishly clever command of Weapons' disquieting tone from its first moment till its last, including through its imagery. He's astute and smart about interrogating humanity's suspicious nature as well — of anyone we can hold responsible for our misfortune, or who doesn't meet our societal standards; of strangers; of anyone who calls us out — as he also was in his debut horror movie. He's also sharp and probing about weaponising mistrust. That digging also shines through in his ensemble's excellent array of performances. And, while he's made another picture dripping with unease, that rattles nerves and unsettles — a mood that bubbles up immediately and simmers constantly from there — he also splashes in moments of humour. There's an element of the Lynchian to Weapons, too, as it takes its can't-look-away journey.

We also spoke with Cregger about a number of these aspects of the movie — and chatted with him about the film's inspiration, following the death of Moore, but not just adding another grief- and trauma-fuelled entry to the horror genre. If you've spotted that Barbarian began with strangers discovering something distressing in someone else's house, while Weapons commences with 17 children fleeing their own homes, we also talked with him about that swerve, alongside scaling up from one film to the next.

On Whether Veering From Sinister Events Happening in Other People's Houses in Barbarian to 17 Children Leaving Their Own Homes in Weapons was a Purposeful Move

"No. No, I try not to do anything purposefully when I'm writing, honestly. It's just for me, writing is a process of discovery, and I try and be as careless as possible.

And so no, I certainly don't think about what I did before or anything like that when I'm writing."

On the Inspiration for Weapons, After the Writing Process Started with the First Sentence Heard in the Film and with a Child Telling Audiences a Story

"Well, I was dealing with grief. A very, very dear friend of mine died. And so I was feeling the absence of someone dear to me.

And so the idea of writing about a community that is reckoning with the absence of something precious felt easy for me to access. And I was able to of funnel a lot of the emotion into these characters and let them just speak authentically. And so that's where it comes in.

By the way, that was not like a conscious thought — like 'oh, I miss my friend, and so I'll [do this]'. It's just that's what subconsciously wanted to come out.

And so my whole job as a writer, honestly, is to try to just turn my brain off as much as I can and become an antenna to my subconscious, and let it out and try to stay out of the way.

And so this is the story that came out."

On Loss, Grief and Mortality Being Common in Horror — But Using Them as a Starting Point Instead

"It's so boring. Genuinely — it's like I'm so tired of horror movies as a metaphor for trauma and grief. It's just like 'can we turn the page already and make a horror movie that's just fun?', you know?

And hopefully, that's what Weapons is supposed to be. It's just a fun rollercoaster ride.

I do not have anything new to say about grief and trauma, and I don't pretend to. That's just the jumping off point."

On Making Horror Films That Are Also Mysteries — and If Taking Audiences on a Ride and Keeping Them Guessing Is Important to Cregger

"I don't know. It's not if it's important to me or not. It's about — I write only for an audience of one: for me. So I'm writing, my process is 'can I entertain myself?'.

Because I am so ADD, and I'm so bored all the time. Especially when I'm watching movies, I'm so frequently bored. It's hard for me to finish any movie, mostly, because I just bail.

So I want to write something that's going to hold my attention. And so I never — that's why I like to write not knowing where it's going to go and what's going to happen, and I try and keep myself engaged.

So that, to me, is my only kind of barometer.

I think I sounded a little asshole-ish when I just said that, but I don't mean to be throwing shade on other movies."

On Whether Cregger Is Particularly Interested in the Weaponisation of Suspicion and Mistrust — Especially If Someone Else Can Be Blamed for Our Misfortunes

"I suppose so. That's definitely human nature, right? We other-ise so easily.

And I'm sure I've been on both sides of that many, many times in my life — and it's fertile ground for conflict, misreading other people and all of the all of the sabre-rattling that we see in modern culture, especially in America.

It seems like all we do is just get worked up about other people that we don't understand, so I think that's very accessible as a writer."

On What Inspires Cregger's Haunting, Lingering Horror Imagery

"I have no idea what inspires it. I wish I had a good answer for that because I'd be able to do it more often, but I don't know.

It's a case-by-case thing. It's a circumstantial thing. I have to think of something in the moment for what the character is facing. So I don't have any catalogue of creepy shit that I'm able to access — I just kind of, as the scene requires, try to do my best to think of what would be the scariest thing there.

There's the people sitting on the couch not moving, which I think it's just bizarre that they would hear the sound — then who sits on their couch in the living room with the lights off? It's just — something's wrong. So that felt fun.

The kids running with their arms out — it just feels like anytime you can just do something simple that implies there's a screw loose, that's fun to do.

You want to create the maximum disconnect with the least amount of effort.

But yeah, I don't know — I wish understood where those things can come from better, because I think I'd be a better writer."

On Layering Humour Into a Film That Is Expertly Disquieting From Start to Finish

"I think the lesson I learned in Weapons is that there are a few jokes I wrote in there that I thought were really funny. I wrote them in. And they didn't work.

When I let the characters have their authentic reaction to bizarre situations, sometimes the humour just naturally appears. And that's what I try to encourage.

But I've learned on this never to try to be clever and write a joke, because they're all on the cutting room floor and nobody liked them.

So I guess that's my only kind of philosophy, is 'let it come from a real place. Don't try and be funny'. For me, by the way — that's just for me."

On Working with a Cast That Includes Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong and More

"I feel like a kid on Christmas every day. Watching these people who are so extremely good at what they do, leaning into making this story — I can't believe how lucky I am.

Honestly, once I cast them, I really don't have a whole lot of credit to take. I kind of stand back and let them just do their thing.

I just try to make sure that we're all making the same movie. They're so talented, they can go anywhere, and my job is to just make sure that we all have the same parameters.

But yeah, I have had an amazing stroke of luck with everyone in this movie. They're all great."

On Scaling Up From Barbarian to Weapons

"Well, you never feel like you're on easy street. And I think if the budget was $200 million for this movie, I still would have felt the pinch.

Because 'the lizard will grow to the size of its cave' is that an expression someone said to me once that I really like — where you just never feel like you have enough time and enough money to make it the way it wants to be made. And I think that's just filmmaking. I don't think that's unique to me.

So, as fun as it was to be able to take a bigger swing and shoot bigger setpieces and have more stars in the movie — and all of that's great — you're still panicked that you're not going to get the shot before the sun goes down. That's just inevitable.

And I don't mean to complain. I felt the bigger scale, don't get me wrong. But you still always feel like your back is against the wall."

Weapons screens in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, August 7, 2025.