Weapons

Zach Cregger’s new film Weapons comes out this Friday. Over an ominous synthesizer drone, the film’s second trailer opens with elementary school teacher Justine (Julia Garner) facing a gym full of angry and worried parents. At 0:09 we catch a glimpse of one of the mysterious runaway kids running, arms spread wide, on black and white CCTV footage - and a growling synthesizer adds some menace here.

A rising tone leads us to 0:36 and we pivot away from the gym scene. There are more shots of kids running at night, arms spread, and we pivot to a voiceover from a young girl. Now there is a pulsing electronic bass and it evokes the sound of running feet or a racing heartbeat. In the background we hear echoes of voices singing. There is a riser leading to an unnerving visceral sound effect accent at 0:48, synched to the title of Zach Cregger’s previous film Barbarian.

At 0:50 we’re back to Archer’s voice. He is trying to unravel the mystery, while watching CCTV footage and drawing lines on a map of the town. Now the ominous bass tone is swelling in and out, more slowly, and there are layers of high-pitched drones de-tuning in eerie ways. There’s even a brief reference at 0:53 to the ticking clock motif that’s often used in film to raise tension (check out the Dunkirk trailer for a fuller example of this).

What happens next is an excellent example of how silence can be more terrifying than music. At 1:05 we cut to musical silence and a ground-level shot of a young boy in a darkened hallway approaching two people with their backs against the wall. No talking, no music, only the sound of footsteps and expressionless faces in the dark. We let our imaginations invent the reasons why this is terrifying!

The music isn’t absent for long, though. At 1:12, a single high violin note fades in. Then we see a shot of the boy’s foot, poised mid-step above a thick line of powder along the floor. At 1:17 the music suddenly stops. Then at 1:18, at the instant the boy tiptoes over the line and his foot touches the ground, there is a shriekingly dissonant instrumental accent and we cut immediately to a shot of the school principal (Benedict Wong), face bloodied, arms spread, running down the main street of town. Musically here the ticking clock motif returns, along with gnarly bass synths and a synthesizer that sounds like a moaning human voice. The music is building intensity now, supporting the fast-paced visuals (like the accent on the beat synched to the shot of the bloodied principal jumping to the ground to look under a car at 1:21).

At 1:28 there is a cut to silence, as Justine peeks through a papered-over window and her jump-scare gasp, on the beat at 1:29, kicks the music back in, now with extra layers of drums and percussion in the style of ‘90s action films.

We’ve hit the climax of the trailer here, and from 1:32-1:42 there are 19 shots on screen (averaging about 2 per second), mostly showing violence and chases, intercut with red on black letters spelling out the film’s title. All the while, the percussion and synths keep the momentum up, and a demonic voice keeps repeats “Are you watching?” three times. The use of this phrase, integrated into the music, reminds me of the “Oh my God!” vocal sample used in Skrillex’s song ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.’ That or maybe it’s a tip of the hat to the ambitious use of a reading of Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘Boots’ as the soundtrack for the 28 Years Later trailer from earlier this year?

After the title card, the trailer closes with the ominous pulsing bass synth again, one more “Are you watching?” and the ringing of a small brass bell.

This trailer keeps its cards close to its chest, because we don’t really know the significance of much of what we see on screen. But the story concept is fascinating/horrifying, and the slowly building music lets us know this will be a thrilling ride of a horror film.

Check out Weapons in theatres August 8, 2025.

— Jack Hui Litster