Julia Garner Terrified as Class Vanishes in Horror Epic ‘Weapons’

Zach Cregger’s sophomore horror feature Weapons has unveiled a new trailer, and if the internet response is anything to go by, the director of Barbarian is on track to redefine what modern horror can achieve. Set to open in UK cinemas on 8 August, Weapons plunges viewers into a labyrinth of paranoia, grief and escalating terror after a classroom of children inexplicably vanishes in the middle of the night.

Led by Emmy-winner Julia Garner as primary school teacher Justine Gandy, Weapons weaves together a fractured web of personal torment, small-town suspicion and supernatural unease. When every child in Justine’s class disappears at precisely 2:17am, parents and officials are quick to turn on her, none more so than Archer Graff, played with quiet menace by Josh Brolin. As police and families scramble for answers, whispers begin to spread that this tragedy might be linked to something much older, and darker, than anyone is prepared to accept.

From the outset, the trailer makes no promises of clarity. Instead, it immerses viewers in a deluge of half-seen horrors and conflicting realities. There are fleeting images of glowing-eyed children roaming in lockstep through suburban streets, a distraught Garner collapsing in a hallway smeared with blood, and cult-like gatherings shrouded in rural shadows. Alden Ehrenreich appears as a detective haunted by what he discovers on grainy CCTV footage, while Benedict Wong plays the school principal struggling to hold a shattered community together.

Cregger has already teased that Weapons is “an interrelated, multi-story horror epic,” drawing early comparisons to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and Alex Garland’s Men. Yet with the addition of a mysterious in-universe website (MaybrookMissing.net) and subtle nods to folklore and cult horror, it’s increasingly clear that Weapons is not just a psychological thriller – it’s a sprawling mythos in the making.

What sets Weapons apart is the suggestion that the horror may not lie solely in the disappearances, but in the responses they provoke. From mutilation to arson to mass hysteria, the trailer teases a community fraying at every edge. In one particularly disturbing moment, a child calmly recounts the events as if reading from scripture: “They got out of bed, and they never came back.” The effect is chilling in its simplicity.

While many are already dissecting the footage for links to Cregger’s breakout hit Barbarian, the new film looks determined to stand on its own. Whether it’s drawing from The Pied Piper, Children of the Corn, or more grounded horrors rooted in societal trauma, Weapons appears poised to escalate the conversation around modern fear, and what happens when that fear becomes communal.

New Line Cinema reportedly offered Cregger a substantial deal, including final cut and guaranteed theatrical distribution, based on the script alone. With the trailer now fuelling widespread speculation and early acclaim, it seems that investment was well placed. If Barbarian was a subversive twist on horror convention, Weapons looks set to burn those conventions down completely.

The film arrives in cinemas on 8 August, we’ll share more news as it comes.

Weapons trailer