It’s been three years since up-and-coming horror filmmaker Zach Cregger unleashed Barbarian on unsuspecting audiences. The mysterious film, starring Bill Skarsgård, Georgina Campbell, and Justin Long, generated early buzz thanks to its unpredictability, unconventional premise, and enthusiasm from die-hard horror buffs. On August 8, Cregger returns to theaters with Weapons, another frightfest with clever viral marketing, a cherry cast, and positive word of mouth fueling its release. The first reactions to Weapons are making the rounds online, with critics and moviegoers saying it’s another feather in Cregger’s cap, proving he’s a filmmaker to watch with a promising career ahead.

The first reactions to Weapons call Cregger’s film a horror masterpiece, saying it’s a brilliant commentary on the attitudes and institutions during the fallout of a communal tragedy. Sadly, efforts to quell violence in rural areas yield little to no results in the face of calamity, especially in the United States. Several reviewers say Cregger’s Weapons reminds them of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, the epic mosaic starring Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and more.

Check out some of first reactions to Weapons below:

Most details about Weapons are shrouded in mystery. It has been said that it’s “an interrelated, multistory horror epic” that’s tonally in the vein of Magnolia, and the story revolves around the disappearance of elementary school kids in a small town. Here’s the official synopsis: When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance. The cast of Zach Cregger’s Weapons includes  Julia Garner (Ozark), Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo), Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange), Amy Madigan (Antlers), Austin Abrams (Euphoria), June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie), and Cary Christopher (Days of Our Lives).

Cregger, who wrote the script without an outline and let the story evolve as he went, previously told Entertainment Weekly that the mystery of the missing children “is going to propel you through at least half of the movie, but that is not the movie. The movie will fork and change and reinvent and go in new places. It doesn’t abandon that question, believe me, but that’s not the whole movie at all. By the midpoint, we’ve moved on to way crazier sh*t than that.”

Are you excited to see Weapons when it opens in theaters on August 8? Let us know in the comments section below.

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