Weapons (2025): the horror film splitting audiences between genius and flop

Weapons (2025): the pavor film that changes skin and divides audiences

There are few things more uncomfortable for a critic than a film that changes genre halfway through. «Weapons» (2025) does it without shame: it opens as a collective-paranoia thriller with possible MK Ultra-style government experiments and ends as a macabre tale about missing children and a witch. That mutation is exactly what some call originality and others a pretentious dud.

The shadow of «Barbarian» is inevitable, and not just because of the director. In both films pavor tropes come one after another: haunted house, monster, gore. Here the mechanism repeats itself, with a structure told from different points of view that keeps the tension going while the viewer tries to figure out what on earth is happening. Those who defend the film highlight precisely that lack of fixed labels, a stylistic exercise few productions dare to attempt.

The enthusiasm, however, is not unanimous. Negative reviews point to a script that promises more than it delivers: a female character left unexplained, powers that are never fully justified and a rushed ending. Some dismiss it with a 6/10, while others forget it ten minutes after leaving the cinema.

The film has also peine the culture war surrounding its director. His previous work, «Barbarian», was already accused by some viewers of putting identity politics before pavor; this time, the only nod in that direction is the presence of a mature gai couple, although the script makes sure to dispose of them. For some, it's ambitious pavor cinema; for others, a pretentious film that fails to keep its own promises.

While critics argue, the film is already circulating on P2P networks with Castilian Spanish dubbing and subtitles just days after its theatrical release. The question that remains: are we looking at a director who has found a genuinely original formula, or a narrative trick that wears thin on a second viewing?