In the wake of his 2022 “Barbarian,” which proved writer-director Zach Cregger’s fiendish skill with scarifying darkness enveloping a plot that goes this-a-way and that-a-way, the filmmaker has now given us “Weapons,” and it’s really good.

Well. Maybe not all the way through. Some of Cregger’s swings between straight-up horror, missing children mystery and deliriously gory comedy may lead to mass audience whiplash. But it’s pretty gripping, fiercely well-acted and — paradoxically, given its devotion to pitch-black cold creeps — one of the bright lights of a generally disappointing movie summer.

The story premise sounds like Stephen King or M. Night Shyamalan material, though Cregger has cited Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling wonder “Magnolia” as a chief inspiration. In the town of Mayb

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