Weapons Director Zach Cregger On How Personal Tragedy And Magnolia Inspired His Wild New Horror Movie [Exclusive Interview]

Zach Cregger started his entertainment career in the world of comedy as part of the Whitest Kids U' Know troupe. But in 2022, Cregger jumped from humor to horror with "Barbarian," a buzzworthy flick that wowed genre fans with a series of jaw-dropping twists and turns no one saw coming. The film made Cregger a hot name in horror, and after producing this year's excellent "Companion," Cregger is back in the director's chair with "Weapons."

Like "Barbarian," Cregger has once again crafted a film where the element of surprise is key (you can read my spoiler-free review right here). The fantastic marketing for the film sets up the basic premise: One night (or to be more accurate, morning) at 2:17 AM, a group of kids from the same small town elementary school class mysteriously leave their house, run into the darkness of their suburban neighborhood, and seemingly vanish without a trace. The town is understandably spooked by this and ready to blame the kids' teacher, the awkward Justine Gandy (Julia Garner). But she wants to solve the mystery, too.

What follows is an ensemble horror story that unfolds in a fashion similar to films like Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" and Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," where the narrative is presented to us from several different points of view until we get one big picture.

I got to speak with Cregger about the origins of his wild and shocking new film, and kept things as spoiler-free as possible. I also made sure to ask him a quick question about his upcoming take on the classic horror series "Resident Evil." 

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

I want to avoid spoilers, but that's also what I start with. "Barbarian" was very much a movie where the less you knew, the better the experience was. Earlier this year, you produced "Companion," which I feel had a similar approach. And now we have this movie, which I think the marketing is doing a really great job of setting up the mood for without giving much away. So I wonder if you could talk about how important it is for you to maintain secrecy.

Zach Cregger: Yeah, I mean it's crucial. I feel like if you spill the beans, then you're cutting half of the joy out of the viewing experience. So I really want people to be able to go in and see the movie as it was intended, which is to be this kind of unraveling mystery. The word mystery has a lot of weight here. It's not a mystery if you know what happened. So let's keep it a mystery.

Could you talk about the format of the film? I had seen you comment that you were inspired by "Magnolia," and it reminded me of "Magnolia" and "Pulp Fiction" and Robert Altman movies like "Short Cuts" and "Nashville." Was that you wanted to do — a horror version of that?

Yeah, "Magnolia" [is] a big one. And obviously if I reference "Magnolia," then I'm kind of in there referencing "Nashville" and "Short Cuts" just because they're so linked. "Pulp Fiction," for sure, I should be referencing that more often because that movie really inspired me so much as a kid to think about structure outside the box, which [Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary] did so well in that movie. But "Magnolia" really just because it's a big ensemble and it's totally proud to be an epic movie and to be a little bit messy. It paints with all these different colors, but it has such a specific palette, and it's sad and it's funny and it's everything. I just love the audacity of that movie. So when I thought of writing a horror movie, not with [something like] "Hereditary" as my inspiration — which by the way, I worship "Hereditary" — but when I think of ["Weapons"] more as this is an ancestor to "Magnolia," then it gives me license to just kind of think differently about how I'm writing it.

I had read that the book "The Gift of Fear" partially inspired "Barbarian." I'm wondering if was something similar here. Again, I know you don't want to go into spoilers, but if there was anything that inspired this specific story or the stories really because there are many.

Yeah, it was a personal tragedy that happened in my life. So it wasn't like a piece of media or anything like that, but it was just something that happened to me. So it's much more, if "Barbarian" was an outward-facing movie, a movie that had a lot to say about society — that sounds so pretentious — but it was a movie that was looking out and talking about the world. Whereas "Weapons is a movie that's very much like me looking inwards and inventorying my s***, my life. It's an autobiographical movie in a lot of ways.

Obviously, you have a background in comedy and this movie, while scary, while disturbing, it has some funny stuff in it. I was surprised at how funny it was. And I'm wondering how you tackle that. Because I've always felt like horror and comedy are the two most subjective genres — what's funny to one person is not going to be funny to someone else. What's scary to one person isn't going to be scary to someone else. It is a very difficult line to walk and I think you do it really well.

Thank you. I mean, I don't know. It's hard. I don't have an approach. I don't really have a process for how to get comedy into horror. As it comes to me when I'm writing, I just kind of let it in when it feels appropriate. The only thing I know is that when I try and write something funny into a horror movie, it's usually bad and it ends up on the cutting room floor. So whenever I think I'm being clever, I'm probably making a mistake. And whenever I just let the characters behave authentically to the situation that they're in, then that tends to work. So that's a lesson I learned on "Weapons," is don't try and be funny, just let it be.

I've always been a fan of Amy Madigan and —

Oh, me too.

— I was really happy when she showed up. I actually did not realize she was in the movie. And again, I'm being very careful to avoid spoilers here, but I imagine you wanted something or someone very specific for her part. So I'm wondering how you sort of came around to giving her the role.

I was just kind of going through IMDb and looking at all of these candidates and when I saw her photo I was like, "Now that's a really good idea." Because I've always been a huge fan of hers, and I just know that she can do anything. You watch her in "Field of Dreams" and she's this firecracker and totally bouncy and just really funny. And then you watch her and "Gone Baby Gone," and she's just heavy. And then you watch her in "Carnivale," and she's intimidating. So I was just like, "She can excel at everything I need this character to excel in." I remember I went and I had lunch with her near her house in Malibu, and I was driving out there and as I was driving I was like, "Okay, Zach, don't offer her the job at lunch. Sleep on it." So I promised myself I wouldn't, and before the main course even came, I was like, "You have to be this role. This is your part." It was just so clear in talking to her. I just knew it.

Is there any significance to the 2:17 AM time or is that just like, that's a spooky time, the suburbs are inherently spooky around that time, or is there more to it than that?

There's something there.

Can you give me a hint?

It can't be that hard to figure that one out.

Okay.

I'm not going to give you a hint, but it's not nothing. I've said in other interviews "it's nothing," but there's something there.

Okay. I'll see if I can crack it. [laughs]

Sorry.

No, that's fine.

How un-fun would it be if I just explained it?

I had to ask. I completely understand. My final question: I know you probably can't say much of anything about "Resident Evil," which you're doing, but there have been so many "Resident Evil" adaptations. There's the Paul W.S. Anderson movies, there was the "Welcome to Raccoon City" movie, which felt like it didn't really make a dent. There was that Netflix series that got canceled. So can you tell me anything about your approach that's going to be somewhat different than what we're used to?

Well, I've never seen any of those. But look, for me, I love the games. I love the games. I played them. I don't know how many countless thousands of hours I've played these games. So I just want to make a movie that is a love letter to the experience that I get when I play those games.

"Weapons" is in theaters now.