Although Zach Cregger’s Barbarian was a sleeper hit in 2022, his new movie, Weapons , arrives to an audience that is already wide awake. Early marketing, including a fake website relating the mysterious disappearance of 17 children from their grade-school classroom, created a sense of eerie mystery without giving away anything concrete, and while future trailers were more explicit, the true nature of the threat facing the peaceful suburb of Maybrook has remained tantalizingly opaque.

All of which presents something of a dilemma for the skittish but horror-curious viewer. Just how scary is Weapons ? And how tough of a sit? A plot involving young children in peril and a title that seems to evoke a link to school shootings is enough to give some prospective viewers pause, and a

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