Zach Cregger’s 'Weapons' Has a Cinematic Blueprint from Denis Villeneuve
The influence is there, once you know where to look.
Zach Cregger’s Weapons is the film of the moment. It opened at number one and quickly stirred debate with its unusual blend of psychological thriller, horror and satire. Since the director is clearly riding a wave, I was intrigued to learn what shaped his vision. The answer? The visual blueprint comes from Denis Villeneuve.
Borrowing a Mood, Not a Copy
Cregger revealed that he and cinematographer Larkin Seiple kept revisiting Villeneuve’s Prisoners, shot by Roger Deakins. They admired its "washed-out, somber, cloudy, rainy" look and aimed to capture the same sense of unease.
In Weapons, the suburban streets feel cursed, homes messy, nights heavy with dread. It’s not imitation, but translation — and once you notice it, the influence is unmistakable.
From Thriller to Horror
Prisoners follows one father’s desperate search for his missing daughter. Weapons widens the lens to the disappearance of 17 kids, pushing grief into collective nightmare territory.
Villeneuve leaned into sorrow, while Cregger embraces absurdity, even conjuring a witch-like figure. Yet both films agree: the truth can be more painful than the mystery. Many would recognise that, wouldn’t they?
A New Auteur in the Making
With its mix of dread, dark humour and genre homage, Weapons stands well above a routine fright-fest. Shadows dominate the screen, the camera glides through cursed streets, and Josh Brolin anchors the story with gravitas.
It may play as horror, but it reveals an auteur in the making.
