Category Archives: Austin Abrams

2025 Films, Alden Ehrenreich, Amy Madigan, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, Cary Christopher, Horror, Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, June Diane Raphael, Justin Long, Toby Huss, Zach Cregger

Weapons-2025

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Weapons-2025

Director Zach Cregger

Starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Amy Madigan

Scott’s Review #1,495

Reviewed October 5, 2025

Grade: A

Zach Cregger, who made his directorial debut with Barbarian in 2022, may have made his way to the big leagues with Weapons (2025), a highly original film rumored to have a follow-up prequel in the works.

One of his characters, the wicked Aunt Gladys (Amy Madiagan), is already becoming a household name and a potential Halloween costume idea.

The fabulous combination of tone, mystery, and genuinely frightening moments makes Weapons an edge-of-your-seat experience.

And who doesn’t find the disappearance of children a perfect horror premise?

Furthermore, the inclusion of chapters dedicated to each central character does wonders to retain the intrigue. Each character has a connection to others, making each subsequent chapter enthralling as viewers realize the connections.

Weapons is one of the best horror films I’ve seen in recent years.

Cregger masterfully gets the film off to a suspenseful and foreboding start with a quiet narration by a child. The youngster explains how one night at exactly 2:17 am, seventeen children left the safety of their suburban Pennsylvania homes and fled into the night, missing without a trace.

All but one child from the same class is included.

Alex (Cary Christopher), who has a strange connection to Aunt Gladys, is mercifully spared.

The rest of the town is left wondering what is behind their disappearance as fingers start to point towards suspects, most notably Justine (Julia Garner), the classroom teacher with a troubled past.

The ensuing witch hunt involving Justine is terrific. We tag along with the haggard teacher to the liquor store as she buys vodka in preparation for a boozy night alone in her small house, hoping to escape her troubles.

Alone, in the dark, and in a small town is frightening enough, but when a mysterious person knocks on her door and vandalizes her car, we feel vulnerable along with the character.

But is Justine as innocent as she appears?

When her chapter ends, and other characters like cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), James (Austin Abrams), a homeless drug addict and burglar, and Archer (Josh Brolin), a construction contractor and the father of Matthew, one of the missing children, get their backstories, the dots start to connect.

Aunt Gladys doesn’t appear for quite a while except in sudden, eerie background shots, but when she does, she immediately takes over the film.

As Alex’s elderly aunt (or is she only posing?), she quickly becomes the main antagonist of the film. Recently arrived in town, she is clad in a short, curly, ginger wig, large amounts of red lipstick, blue eyeshadow, fake eyelashes, and fake eyebrows, all behind thick-framed, tinted sunglasses.

On the surface, she appears to be an odd, old eccentric woman, but jovial and good-natured.

I wonder if Cregger patterned her after Minnie, played by Ruth Gordon, the eccentric woman revealed to be a witch in the 1968 masterpiece Rosemary’s Baby?

In one terrific scene, we almost see a sympathetic side to Aunt Gladys. She explains to Alex that neither a hospital nor water will help her recover from her terminal illness. There is a glimpse of kindness and humanity in her eyes before we recall her intentions.

There are also periodic jumps that come out of nowhere. When kindly principal Marcus (Benedict Wong) suddenly behaves out of character, we are startled. An odd woman brandishing a knife stumbles out of a doorway and lumbers to a car, cutting the hair of Justine.

Why, we wonder?

Many scenes are shot from a long-view angle without dialogue, which adds to the tension.

The finale combines a chase scene to end all chase scenes, blending horror and comedy in a way that oddly works similarly to what The Substance did in 2024. This might be the new trend in modern horror films.

Solidly infusing classic horror elements with mystery and intrigue, Cregger provides an unsettling experience that feels fresh and original.

He served as director, producer, writer, and co-musical scorer, proving that having only one chef in the kitchen often works wonders for creativity and structure.

Weapons (2025) has deservedly received critical acclaim while enjoying box office success, solidifying Cregger’s name on the cinematic map.

2019 Films, André Øvredal, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Guillermo del Toro, Horror, Michael Garza, Zoe Colletti

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark-2019

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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark- 2019

Director Andre Ovredal

Starring Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza

Scott’s Review #997

Reviewed March 10, 2020

Grade: C+

Admittedly, not having read the series of books that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) is based on, nor knowing the books even existed, may have influenced my opinion. Still, the film is lackluster at best, serving up some creative moments, but more silly ones.

The film is too polished, uneven, and feels too similar to modern projects like It (2017) or the television series Stranger Things to have its individuality.

A few interesting moments or sequences exist, but not enough to recommend.

The creepy children’s books written by Alvin Schwartz are adapted into film form, as the 1968 Halloween period is brought to life.

The small town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, serves as the backdrop for the historic Bellows family mansion, which has loomed over the city for decades and holds a haunting mystery.

Sarah, a young girl with dark secrets, has transformed her troubled life into a series of terrifying stories, written in a book that has transcended time.

After a group of impressionable teenagers discover Sarah’s terrifying home, they uncover her stories, and they become all too real.

The visual effects and images are the film’s high point.

Several visceral and stylistic sequences deserve admiration and mention. When one of the panicked teenagers scrambles into a mental institution, he is met with a horrific, blood-red glowing image that surrounds him.

As he attempts to escape, a ghastly, bloated figure slowly approaches him from all sides.

Later, a freakish person known as The Jangly Man, able to reconstruct itself from separate body parts, pursues one of the teens. These scenes are credible and inventive. The look of the film is its only real success.

The late 1960s time period both works and doesn’t work. Getting off to a splendid start, the theme song performed by Donovan, “Season of the Witch”, also incorporated over the closing credits, is a positive and provides a nice mystique.

Since the date is supposed to be Halloween, this is fitting, though too few other seasonal reminders ever exist so that the viewer soon forgets it is Halloween at all.

Attempts to make the characters look the part are feeble, resulting in modern actors clad in 1960s attire, which reduces authenticity.

Mentions of the Vietnam War, while politically left-leaning, are only added for story purposes, feeling staged.

Once and for all, a note to filmmakers: making a character wear glasses to appear intelligent is a gimmick done to death and no longer works.

Actor Zoe Margaret Colletti is fine in the central role of Stella and does her best with the material she is given.

Still, the realism is lacking, resulting in an overwrought quality. The character feels more like a Nancy Drew-type than anything more profound.

Viewers are supposed to believe the convoluted story that Sarah was abused and now resides, as an older woman, in a secret room and scripts a book of horror stories that come to life and wreak havoc on those who enter the haunted house.

Stella manages to channel Sarah, as an adult, and convinces her to stop writing and cease the terror with a weak message of female empowerment. The events are so far-fetched, and the storyline is dictated that it eliminates any character development from the film.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) struggles to determine its target audience. Is it young adults or an older audience seeking a Halloween-themed scare?

The story is too complex and confusing for both the audience and anyone else.

The visual effects are fantastic, especially the stylistic red and black end credits, but the overall context suffers from a lack of continuity and becomes a forgettable experience.