Weapons Trailer: Julia Garner and Josh Brolin Lead Zach Cregger’s Next Horror Epic

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Los Angeles, June 24: So what happens when Barbarian’s Zach Cregger gets a bigger budget, a bolder concept, and Josh Brolin yelling at Julia Garner in a PTA meeting from hell? You get Weapons—a slick, unshakable horror-thriller that’s already sending chills up the spines of genre junkies and cinephiles alike.

Horror With a Capital H (and Maybe a Little PTA)

The new trailer for Weapons dropped this week and if you thought this was going to be just another missing-kid mystery, guess again. The setup is straight-up nightmare fuel: seventeen third-graders vanish at exactly 2:17 a.m.—all from the same classroom. Only one makes it back. That’s it. That’s the premise. And it’s wild enough to hook you before the title card even lands.

Then there’s Julia Garner—still in her Ozark intensity zone—as Justine Gandy, the teacher everyone’s ready to burn at the stake. Brolin, playing one of the heartbroken dads, hammers the trailer’s core tension home with a furious line delivery: “Why just her classroom? Why only hers?!” (Put that on a T-shirt, honestly.)

From Found Footage to Full-Blown Cinematic

Cregger isn’t playing small-ball anymore. After turning a random Airbnb into a horror labyrinth in Barbarian, he’s leveling up—calling Weapons a “horror epic” and name-dropping Magnolia as structural inspiration. Yeah, Magnolia. For a horror flick. The audacity? Kind of iconic.

And that genre bend shows. There’s a moment in the trailer with eerie surveillance footage of kids zombie-walking into the night with arms outstretched. It’s creepy in that “I can’t sleep now” way, but also suggests bigger, weirder forces at work. Cregger even teases, “By the halfway point, we’ve moved on to way crazier s— than that.” Sold.

Cast Goals: Julia + Josh + Chaos

Garner brings real pathos to Justine—a woman either on the verge of breaking or hiding something big. Brolin, no stranger to grief-fueled dads (see: Sicario, Everest), hits every note with that quiet fire he’s mastered.

The stacked supporting cast—Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, Austin Abrams, and more—rounds out what looks like a tangled, community-wide descent into paranoia. And because this is New Line and Warner Bros. we’re talking about, you better believe the town of “Maybrook” is now a fully-built ARG world online, complete with fake news clips and creepy websites.

Bigger Budget, Bolder Moves

Reportedly budgeted around $38 million (a solid bump from Barbarian’s micro-size), Weapons looks like it’s flexing that cash wisely. The cinematography? Expansive. The score? Sinister. The editing? Knows exactly when to hold a shot too long.

And while the horror landscape right now is full of sequels, requels, and IP nostalgia plays, Weapons feels different. It’s original, it’s gutsy, and it knows its audience. Horror fans online are already calling it “the next Hereditary” or “Arrival meets The Ring,” which might sound insane—but they’re not totally wrong.

Release the Chaos

Weapons hits theaters and IMAX on August 8, 2025. That’s just enough time to let the slow-burn hype build—and maybe enough room for Cregger to stay ahead of the inevitable spoilers. This one’s not just riding on a freaky premise or star power; it’s the confidence in tone, scale, and ambition that makes it feel like a potential genre moment.

If you loved the “don’t trust your Airbnb” energy of Barbarian but wanted it multiplied by a dozen storylines, high school secrets, mysterious cult-ish imagery, and one killer ensemble—strap in. Weapons might be your next favorite nightmare.

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