12 Best Movies Like Weapons

"Weapons" isn't just one of the best horror movies that released in 2025; it's also one of the best movies of the year without question. Written and directed by "Whitest Kids U Know" sketch comedian turned horror auteur Zach Cregger, the film has a simple premise. At 2:17 in the morning on one random day, 17 children leave their beds, run out of their homes, and vanish; what's even stranger in this situation is that all of the children were in the same third-grade class taught by Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) except for the one "survivor," Alex Lily (Cary Christopher). With a supporting cast that includes Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, and Austin Abrams, "Weapons" will take you to places you'd never expect.

We won't directly spoil the incredible mystery of "Weapons" here — though, suffice to say, it has a lot to do with a mysterious and incredibly unsettling character played by Amy Madigan — but if you loved Cregger's sophomore film, what should you watch next? It's an interesting query for a number of reasons. First of all, "Weapons" definitely has a few jump scares, but it's more of a thriller than a traditional horror flick, and its climax switches genres to become a flat-out comedy. Second of all, there's magic in "Weapons," but the story is told well enough that you can suspend your disbelief. Third of all, "Weapons" is deeply satisfying and fun, which isn't true of every horror movie. From Cregger's directorial debut to a movie whose title is a small "Weapons" spoiler, here's what you should watch if you like "Weapons." Light spoilers follow for all movies, including "Weapons!"

Before "Weapons," Zach Cregger wowed audiences with his directorial debut "Barbarian," which, like "Weapons," beautifully marries comedy and horror. As the film begins, we meet Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell), who booked an AirBnB in a strange city for a job interview only to discover, upon arriving, that there's somebody else already staying there. That somebody's name is Keith (Bill Skarsgård), and though Tess is understandably unnerved by his presence, they eventually agree to share the house.

Unbeknownst to both Tess and Keith, there's a basement in this AirBnB that contains something genuinely horrifying ... and after Tess accidentally gets locked down there, she discovers a secret corridor and decides to investigate. You'll never guess where this journey leads for both Tess and Keith, and when the house's real owner, disgraced actor AJ (Justin Long) shows up unexpectedly, he finds himself in a bit of a sticky situation as well (so to speak). "Barbarian" is a funny, clever thrill ride that constantly subverts the audience's expectations — and handily proved that Cregger is a generational talent as a writer and director.

It's safe to say that, without "Get Out," movies like "Weapons" might not exist ... and frankly, Zach Cregger would probably take that as a compliment. In 2017, sketch comedian Jordan Peele released his directorial debut, which just so happened to be a horror film starring Daniel Kaluuya as Chris, a guy who decides to visit his girlfriend Rose's (Allison Williams) family for a weekend but worries, before they leave, that the Armitage family might take issue with their daughter dating a man of color. Weirdly, the Armitages come off a little too cool — patriarch Dean (Bradley Whitford) tells Chris that he would have voted for former President Barack Obama a third time, if possible — but as the weekend continues, it becomes clear that the Armitage family has an ulterior motive, and Chris might be in danger.

"Get Out" is a singular entry into the horror canon, so it's not surprising that, in 2018 — while the film itself was nominated for best picture — Peele became the first Black screenwriter in Academy history to win an Oscar for best original screenplay. "Get Out" is one of the best horror movies (or, as Peele calls it, a "social thriller") ever made, and it's the blueprint for audacious concepts like "Weapons."

If a movie like "Get Out" made "Weapons" possible, Jordan Peele's sophomore film "Us" likely helped encourage directors like Zach Cregger to push their strange ideas even further. At the beginning of "Us," released in 2019, we meet Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o), who's heading to the beach for a family vacation with her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and their children Zora and Jason (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex), but right away, the vibes are off. Not only is the family spending their summer at the same beach where, as a child, Adelaide got lost in a carnival funhouse and didn't speak for months afterwards, but right away, Jason sees a strange man on the beach with a bloody hand. Unfortunately, that strange man is a harbinger of things to come as doppelgangers of the human race, clad in red jumpsuits and armed with scissors, launch their attack and emerge from underground lairs.

"Us" is weird, ambitious, and doesn't totally work if you think about it too much, but that doesn't really matter; Peele is such a singularly great director that the movie is a total delight, and Nyong'o's central performance is absolutely stunning. "Weapons" gets weird with it, and so does "Us."

As Jordan Peele continued making movies, he leaned more and more into supernatural elements, and that impulse is on full display in his 2022 film "Nope." (Peele, for what it's worth, apparently loves giving his movies names that are nigh impossible to Google.) When we first meet the Haywood siblings in "Nope" — Otis Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) — they're struggling to keep their late father's business afloat after his death in a freak accident as they try to provide trained horses for commercials and other projects. As Otis Jr., or OJ, starts selling horses to make ends meet, the siblings run afoul of local showman Ricky "Jupe" Park (Steven Yeun), a former child star who survived a harrowing encounter with a chimp and now abuses an apparent natural phenomenon to amuse crowds.

It turns out that Jupe's "natural phenomenon" is a massive alien creature that's happy to devour anything in its path, and as OJ and Emerald uncover that mystery, they decide they need to try and film the alien and sell the footage to make a huge profit. "Nope" is many things: a treatise on celebrity, a great monster movie, and a showcase for phenomenal performers like Kaluuya, Palmer, Yeun, Brandon Perea, and Keith David. At the end of the day, though, it's just a great movie.

Like "Weapons," the 2024 horror film "Heretic" is a slow burn that'll keep you guessing and builds to an unexpected supernatural twist ... and like "Weapons," it relies on a venerated actor to really sell its scares. Co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who also worked on the first "Quiet Place" film, focus their story on two Mormon missionaries, Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes (Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher), who knock on the door of a strange house to preach their gospel only to be invited inside by a man named Mr. Reed (a beautifully cast Hugh Grant). Despite protestations from the girls, who aren't supposed to be alone with a man because of their faith, Mr. Reed convinces them to join him in his living room by claiming that his wife is just in the kitchen baking a blueberry pie, so they head inside.

The first reveal in "Heretic" is that the smell of a freshly baked blueberry pie is just a candle meant to trick visitors, and the hits just keep coming for Sisters Paxton and Barnes. "Heretic" helped set the stage for "Weapons" with its surprising supernatural bent and veteran actor as the villain — Grant and "Weapons" star Amy Madigan could certainly go toe-to-toe over who's more terrifying — and it's a fun watch from beginning to end.

If you've ever dealt with toxic in-laws, "Ready or Not" will resonate with you. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and penned by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, the 2019 horror comedy "Ready or Not" introduces us to Grace (Samara Weaving), a former foster child who's spent her life looking for a family only to meet Alex Le Domas (Mark O'Brien), a handsome and wealthy bachelor who sweeps Grace off of her feet. As she arrives for her wedding day at the Le Domas estate, Grace meets Alex's parents Tony and Becky (Henry Czerny and Andie MacDowell) and his siblings Emilie and Daniel (Melanie Scrofano and Adam Brody), only to discover something deeply sinister about the entire family. As it turns out, they're under an ancient curse, and Grace must endure the game randomly chosen from their supernatural puzzle box — and survive — in order to truly become a Le Domas.

You're not ready for the twists and turns found within "Ready or Not" if you haven't seen this clever, genuinely funny film, but thanks to performers like Weaving, Brody, and MacDowell, the entire thing feels grounded. Are you ready to see one of the most striking final shots in recent horror memory? Check out "Ready or Not."

If you watched "Weapons" and you're looking for a supernatural flick that's even scarier, give "The Cabin in the Woods" a try. Released in 2011, directed by Drew Goddard, and written by Goddard and Joss Whedon, this horror film is a clever play on the entire genre ... but you wouldn't know that immediately as you meet college students Dana Polk (Kristen Connolly), Jules Louden (Anna Hutchison), Curt Vaughan (Chris Hemsworth), Holden McCrea (Jesse Williams), and Marty Mikalski (Fran Kanz) decide to spend a weekend at (you guessed it) a remote cabin in the woods. As they explore the cabin's extremely weird basement, they find a series of creepy artifacts — but unbeknownst to them, those artifacts are triggers that help technicians at "the Facility" like Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) decide the perfect horror scenario for the cabin's inhabitants.

"The Cabin in the Woods" is, to be clear, really scary — there's a climactic sequence that brings a whole bunch of horrific creatures into the mix — but it's self-aware, undeniably clever, and a whole lot of fun. "Weapons" is sly, smart, and bombastic, and so is "The Cabin in the Woods."

The conceit of the 2017 horror comedy "Happy Death Day" is relatively simple, as far as horror concepts go. In Christopher Landon's film (which was written by Scott Landell), college student Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) wakes up on her birthday and has a pretty normal day, all things considered, until she's hunted by a masked murderer and killed. What's particularly startling, though, is that Tree wakes up after said murder and relives her birthday yet again, making "Happy Death Day" a horrific take on time-loop movies like "Groundhog Day" and "Palm Springs." So why does Tree keep rebooting? As she goes through her doomed birthday over and over again, she tries to find the identity of the killer, wondering if it comes down to a cupcake given to her by her roommate, an illicit affair she's having with a professor, or something else entirely.

"Happy Death Day" is delightfully strange, super twisted, and ultimately makes its wild conceit work, just like "Weapons." If you're looking for a real puzzler and a horror movie that'll make you chuckle, try "Happy Death Day."

Arguably the second-scariest movie on this list (the final entry is by far the most frightening), "Smile," the 2022 horror flick written and directed by Parker Finn in his feature debut, will make you second-guess any grin you see from now on. When we first meet psychiatrist Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), she's treating a girl named Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey) who not only claims that she saw her professor die by suicide, but that she's possessed by some sort of malevolent entity; before Rose can investigate further, Laura also dies by suicide while smiling widely. From there, things get a lot worse, but we won't spoil it here.

Clearly, a sinister smile is a bad sign in this particular movie, and as Rose discovers, the entity is real — and the gruesome grin worn by its victims is a harbinger of terrible things to come. Again, "Smile" is quite scary, so if you're looking for something more frightening than "Weapons," this is a good bet. (Also, its 2024 sequel "Smile 2" is pretty fun to boot.)

These days, Robert Eggers is a well-known horror and thriller director thanks to projects like "Nosferatu," "The Northman," and "The Lighthouse" — but when he released "The Witch" in 2015, he made a name for himself as an auteur ... and he helped launch star Anya Taylor-Joy's career in the process. In "The Witch," Taylor-Joy plays a young woman named Thomasin in who lives in New England in the 1630s with her father William (Ralph Ineson), her mother Katherine (Kate Dickie), her brother Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), and young twins Mercy and Jonas (Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson). After Katherine gives birth to a baby boy named Samuel, he disappears while Thomasin is taking care of him, and the mystery leads back to a local witch ... and a sinister goat named Black Phillip. The unseen witch and Black Phillip end up tormenting the family and entrancing Thomasin in particular, to the point where they all start experiencing disturbing visions.

So wait, what does this have to do with "Weapons?" If you know about the twist in Zach Cregger's film, you know that witchcraft is a surprisingly huge part of the narrative, and you can probably tell from the title of "The Witch" that the film centers on witchcraft. If you want to watch the film that made Eggers a horror star and put Taylor-Joy on the map, check out "The Witch."

Horror movies are getting more clever and more ambitious with each passing year, and 2025's "Companion," written and directed by Drew Hancock, is a perfect example of that trend. As our protagonist Iris (Sophie Thatcher) reminisces about how she met her beloved boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) and a trip they took to a secluded lake house with some of Josh's friends. Naturally, the weekend goes awry, but not in a way that you'd expect. Unfortunately, getting into the plot of "Companion" would be a humongous spoiler — particularly when it comes to Iris' true nature — so we won't get into precise details here, but rest assured that, in Hancock's capable hands, "Companion" is a wild ride that features excellent performances from Thatcher, Quad, and their co-stars Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, Rupert Friend, and Jaboukie Young-White. 

It's a great era for high-concept horror movies, and "Companion," like "Weapons," is a great example of that specific horror genre. Also, not for nothing, Zach Cregger was originally going to direct "Companion" but suggested that Hancock do it instead, and the rest is history.

Ari Aster's 2018 feature directorial debut "Hereditary" is, without a doubt, the most terrifying movie in this whole list — and the entire concept of "elevated horror" might not exist without "Hereditary" (or, for that matter, "Get Out"). In the film, miniature artist Annie Graham (Toni Collette) is living a seemingly normal life in Utah with her family — husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), who works as a psychiatrist, and their children Peter (Alex Wolff) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro) — even as she grieves the death of her mother, whose funeral attracted far more mourners than she expected. Then, tragedy strikes when Peter brings Charlie to a party where she experiences a severe allergic reaction; as Peter frantically drives Charlie hospital to get help and she sticks her head out of the window for air, she's decapitated by a telephone pole, devastating the entire Graham family.

This is all frightening enough, but what happens to the Grahams next defies description, which is to say that the twists and turns of "Hereditary" won't be spoiled here. Suffice to say, Collette gives one of the very best performances of her career — which, if you're familiar with her storied career, is really saying something — and the entire movie builds to an unforgettable, horrifying crescendo. "Weapons" is plenty scary and deals with supernatural forces, but "Hereditary" takes that seemingly simple blueprint to truly terrifying levels.