Director Zach Cregger Reveals How Different Weapons Is From Barbarian

Weapons has all the same creeping terror of Barbarian, but don’t go looking for another second act scene change this time around. Writer-director Zach Cregger sat down with ComicBook for an interview at San Diego Comic-Con this year, and he admitted that Barbarian was intentionally “jarring” for first-time viewers. That trick wouldn’t have worked twice, and Cregger did not try it again. He said that pacing and this time around will likely feel more familiar to frequent movie-goers, without sacrificing any of the fear. Weapons hits theaters on Friday, August 8th, so we won’t have to live in suspense much longer.

“Well, structurally I think Weapons is a more complex movie than Barbarian, Cregger said. “Barbarian is structurally unique, and Weapons is structurally unique, but with Barbarian, when it kind of shifts, it’s disorienting and it can be frustrating to people. I think when Weapons shifts and reinvents itself, it builds the momentum. It doesn’t ever take you out of the story, I hope.”

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“Instead, it feels like, ‘Here we go. Now we’re doing this. Let’s figure it out,’ you know?” he went on. “So, I think I’ve kind of made a fundamental adjustment to the structural idea that I think is more in service of the experience.”

Barbarian was Cregger’s first outing as a feature-length writer-director, and it made waves in the horror genre and beyond. Cregger was best known in the world of comedy, starring in the sketch show Whitest Kids U Know and a handful if sitcoms afterward. After Barbarian premiered in 2022, he faced a major challenge in following up its success and acclaim.

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By all accounts, Weapons rises to that challenge. The movie is set in a small Florida town, and begins with a mystery — all but one of the children from a single elementary school class get up in the middle of the night and run out of their houses at the exact same minute, with no explanation. As the community scrambles to find them and understand what has happened, it uncovers other dark secrets in the process. The all-star cast includes Julia Garner, Benedict Wong, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, and many other big stars.

Weapons already has a 100% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing, with 18 early reviews in already. The movie hits theaters on Friday, August 8th in the U.S. Barbarian is currently streaming on Netflix.