The trailer for Weapons recently dropped, and man, oh man, it promises to be absolutely terrifying. If this footage paints an accurate picture of this film, then this movie can be summed up with the saying: there is nothing more petrifying than simple, old-fashioned horror and creepiness, which Hollywood is certainly still able to produce.
Brilliantly, the trailer begins with classic shots of a typical idyllic American town, as the terrifyingly and subtly ominous music coincides with the gentle voice of a child who introduces us to the premise of the film. "This is a true story that happened in my town. So this one Wednesday was like a normal day for the whole school, but today was different." As the spooky music continues and we see a brilliant cinematic shot of the school in question, we viewers know that something in this perfect small American town is terribly wrong. As we enter into the school and into an empty classroom which then cuts to a dark room, perhaps we see a deeper theme: underneath the picturesque and idyllic American school and town, so often lies a darker truth. So often, things are not really as they seem, especially in what appears to be the perfect town. As the trailer continues, we learn the main plot of the film: an entire classroom of children goes missing in the middle of the night, with the teacher being suspected.
If this movie proves to be as creepy and terrifying as the trailer suggests, then horror film fans will not be disappointed. It has all the elements of a classic Hollywood horror story, going all the way back to the glory days of films like Dracula in the 1930s, and the countless cheap horror flicks that were produced like paper in the 1980s. The addition of Josh Brolin is promising. Brolin rarely disappoints in his acting; his character, "Mr. Graff," provides the trailer with a touch of tension as he demands answers. People want to know why so many kids have disappeared from the school. Audiences won't complain about the addition of such great character actors like Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, and Alden Ehrenreich, to name just a few.
Maybe the most terrifying moment of this trailer is the shot of that same dark classroom, once again populated with students, only for one of them to offer a Joker-esque grin that will petrify any moviegoer. There is something about clowns that makes a horror film all the more terrifying, and perhaps that is why the Joker is the most enduring fictional villain of all time. There is something even more terrifying about a perfect small town hiding a dark secret. All of these elements make Weapons a promising blockbuster for the summer of 2025.
Weapons opens in theaters on August 8, 2025.