A new trailer for Barbarian director's new horror movie just dropped – and it might be the scariest movie of 2025

Julia Garner in Weapons
(Image credit: New Line)

Following the success of Barbarian, director Zach Cregger is back with another creepy horror movie called Weapons, and we just got a first full trailer. Judging by the mysterious and spine-chilling footage, this might be the scariest movie of 2025.

"This is a true story that happened in my town," says a little girl at the start of the trailer, which you can watch in the post below. "So this one Wednesday is like a normal day for the whole school. But today was different. Every other class had all their kids. But Mrs. Gandy's room was totally empty. And you know why? Because the night before, at 2.17 in the morning, every kid woke up, got out of bed, walked downstairs, and into the dark. And they never came back".

With this eerie introduction, almost like the start of a creepy fairy tale, the images show the consequences of this collective disappearance. Mrs. Gandy (played by Fantastic Four star Julia Garner) seems to know more than she lets on, while the parents of the children (including a very angry one played by Josh Brolin) are losing their minds.

As the trailer goes on, we see the children are coming back to class at night, but they look different. What is going on in Maybrook?

So far, Zach Cregger is playing his cards right with Weapons, which has been building lots of intrigue online thanks to a a viral marketing campaign. An in-universe site called Maybrook Missing, which lists cases of missing children in the area, went viral last week. The website seemingly connected the upcoming movie to Cregger's previous film, Barbarian, by reporting on the case of a 28-year-old woman who escaped a rental property in Detroit "under shocking circumstances." This week, an additional 137-minute video has been released, featuring unsettling CCTV footage

Along with Garner and Brolin, the film stars Star Wars star Alden Ehrenreich, Marvel's Benedict Wong, Antlers’ Amy Madigan, Austin Abrams, and Cary Christopher.

Weapons hits theaters on August 8. For more, check out our list of the best horror movies, and read our guide to all the upcoming horror movies in 2025 and beyond.

Mireia Mullor
Contributing Writer

Mireia is a UK-based culture journalist and critic. She previously worked as Deputy Movies Editor at Digital Spy, and her work as a freelance writer has appeared in WeLoveCinema and Spanish magazines Fotogramas, Esquire, and Elle. She is also a published author, having written a book about Studio Ghibli's 'Kiki's Delivery Service' in 2023. Talking about anime and musicals is the best way to grab her attention.

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