Sunday Scaries: ‘Weapons’ Has Me Very Excited to See What Zach Cregger Has Up His Sleeve

The Sunday Scaries are upon us once again! Yes, as the weekend concludes, most of us feel an oncoming sense of anticipatory dread about the week ahead. Anxiety about work manifests itself into a feeling that’s known as the Sunday Scaries. However, we at Awards Radar are here to combat that, by taking back the name. Now, we want you think about a horror-centric piece on the site when you hear the term. So, let us continue on with another installment of the Awards Radar Sunday Scaries! Today, we’re hyping ourselves up for one of the biggest horror titles of 2025…

Folks, the more I see from Weapons, the more excited I am for it, and I was already pumped. Even going back to when it was first announced as a hot script, the thought of Zach Cregger making an epic horror film that was said to have shades of Magnolia captured my attention. Since then, we’ve obviously had interesting casting, a pair of mysterious yet compelling trailers, and a brewing sense that this isn’t just some run of the mill fright flick. As such, it’s easily not just one of my most anticipated horror titles of this year, but overall.

Cregger made a huge impression on me with Barbarian, a complete shock, in the best way possible. Few films have surprised and delighted more, especially when you went in blind. As such, I was already willing to follow him anywhere within the genre. I’m not big on the Resident Evil movies, but his upcoming new take has my interest. He’s a genre storyteller that I believe is capable of something special.

Back after Barbarian came out, I wrote a Sunday Scaries on Cregger being a future master of horror. This here is some of what I said:

About a year ago, it wouldn’t have been unquestionable to not know who Zach Cregger was. Moreover, if you did know him it was as the founder of the comedy group The Whitest Kids U’ Know or maybe as the co-director/star of Miss March. Cregger has a background in comedy, not horror, which makes his meteoric and fast rise all the more impressive. That and just how fantastic Barbarian is. In the same way that Jordan Peele made that successful transition, Cregger is now doing the same. Their horror and filmmaking styles are different, but they seem poised to both be genre forces for years to come.

This (here) is some of what I had to say about Barbarian back at the time in my rave review:

What a joy it is to be surprised by a film. When you’re in my line of work, that doesn’t happen too often. Most of the time, you know too much, in fact. So, when circumstances dictated that I was headed to a screening of Barbarian without really any knowledge of what it was about, the possibilities were endless. Thrillingly, this movie would upend any expectations, so already going in cold provided a ridiculously good time. Funny, novel, scary, and incredibly tense, this has just about everything a genre fan could ask for. The fact that it’s deeply original as well? Well, that’s just some bloody icing on the cake.

Barbarian is a lot of fun because it’s aware of how to subvert your expectations. It’s quite impossible to guess where this one is ever going, so giving yourself over to the story is a joy. It’s like a roller coaster, zooming through its genre conventions in search of something new. For my money, this is one of the more purely enjoyable experiences I’ve had with a horror/thriller in some time.

Writer/director Zach Cregger loves turning the screws here. With some old school practical gore, this iis a throwback mix of horror and thriller. Cregger’s direction is always seeking to keep you on your toes, while his script is far more clever than most of this ilk. He not only makes Barbarian one of the best fright flicks of the year, but establishes Cregger as a filmmaker to watch out for. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Now, we have Weapons. The mystery of what’s going on looks really well done, at least so far, and while I have my theories, I’d be just as happy to be wrong as to be right. Again, comparing it to Magnolia, one of my all-time favorite films, is hardly going to lower expectations over here. It’s probably not going to break through to the awards side of things, but right now, there’s few things I want to see more than Cregger’s latest vision in terror.

Hopefully we have the next truly great scary movie on our hands with Weapons. Even if it’s just very good, it still is an exciting new chapter in Cregger’s career. Between this and Resident Evil, we’re going to learn a lot about him in the next few years. I really think he’s about to become a horror A-lister. Weapons is our first clue about that possibility, so sit tight…

Stay tuned for another Sunday Scaries installment next week!