Brian Raftery on
Unbreakable 2000
Raftery's white whale was M. Night Shyamalan, the guest he wanted and couldn't land; he calls this 'a really interesting movie about 2000.'
The Big Picture · Interview · Review · Discussion
‘Weapons’ Is Why We Go to the Movies, With Zach Cregger!
August 8, 2025/ 89 min/ Sean Fennessey
Sean Fennessey flies solo for the last Big Picture before the fall-festival break. Brian Raftery drops in to tease his summer series on the Bush-era 2000s. Then Sean pins Michael Shanks's body-horror 'Together' against Zach Cregger's 'Weapons,' walks through a long syllabus of the films behind it, and closes with a spoiler-heavy sit-down with Cregger himself.
32 films across 5 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Brian Raftery on his summer seriesthe Bush years, deliberately un-spoiled
Brian Raftery on
Signs 2002
The Shyamalan title he tags as 'a really amazing kind of actual 9/11 movie.'
Brian Raftery on
The Happening 2008
The third Shyamalan he couldn't choose between: 'an amazing movie for a gazillion reasons.'
Brian Raftery on
Eddington 2025
The movie Raftery can't stop thinking about from his heavy summer at the theater.
Brian Raftery on
28 Years Later 2025
His most fun moviegoing experience of the year: he lost his mind, alone, at the Burbank AMC over the gang ending.
Brian Raftery on
Amadeus 1984
Went to a 70mm screening for his wife's first time; the projector broke and they finished on Tubi. 'Perfect movie, no notes.'
Brian Raftery on
The Naked Gun 2025
The reboot he's most excited for; he's seen the 1988 original 'ten million times' and just wants comedies back on the big screen.
‘Together’perfectly solid, over-literal body horror
Together 2025
Written and directed by Michael Shanks. Dave Franco and Alison Brie (a real-life couple) play Tim and Millie, a relationship at a crossroads who fall into a cursed sunken church, drink the water, and start physically fusing. A modern riff on codependency body horror that premiered noisily at Sundance and Neon bought big. It's already about $13M at the box office. Sean finds the setup preposterous and the metaphor hammered flat (the muscle-relaxer shower gag, the sex-stall fusion), but the leads are good and the movie is a fine time. It ends with the two literally merged into one being while their parents meet at lunch.
‘Weapons’Sean's favorite thing at the movies
Weapons 2025
Zach Cregger's second feature after 'Barbarian,' pitched by Cregger to the trades as 'hereditary meets Magnolia.' Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan; shot by Larkin Seiple. Seventeen kids sprint out of Justine Gandy's class one night and the town's grief curdles into paranoia, told across seven chapter-structured POVs. Sean's favorite of the year: the structure, the performances (Madigan as the witch Aunt Gladys, Christopher as the lone kid left behind), the constantly-moving camera, grief themes left as subtext, and a gory, euphoric final 15 minutes. Warner Bros. won the script in a bidding war Jordan Peele was reportedly furious to lose.
The ‘Weapons’ syllabusSean's influence list for the movie
Village of the Damned 1960
The British original about blonde children who emit power; Sean notes Carpenter's lesser 1995 remake. The eeriness of what's really going on with little kids.
Rosemary's Baby 1968
Ruth Gordon's Minnie Castevet, look and scheme, is the template Sean sees in Amy Madigan's Gladys.
The Blood on Satan's Claw 1971
Piers Haggard's British folk horror about children changed by exposure to the devil's remains; Sean doubts Cregger had it in mind but calls it a good fit.
The Stepford Wives 1975
Cited for its body-and-mind control of a whole community.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978
The Philip Kaufman version, a prevailing force overtaking consciousness and flesh, though Cregger says Body Snatchers movies aren't big for him.
Ordinary People 1980
Redford's Best Picture winner about a suburban family unable to cope with a son's death. Sean's strongest emotional comparison; Cregger admits he's only seen it once.
The Witches of Eastwick 1987
George Miller; witches casting spells and controlling minds and bodies.
They Live 1988
Carpenter: a society that isn't as it seems.
The 'Burbs 1989
Joe Dante's what's-in-that-house comedy-horror; a favorite of Sean's wife.
Short Cuts 1993
Altman's Raymond Carver adaptation, the ensemble-convergence DNA behind Magnolia.
The Sweet Hereafter 1997
Egoyan's Russell Banks adaptation about a town that loses a number of children to an accident and can't cope.
Magnolia 1999
The interconnected structure and needle drops; Ehrenreich's mustachioed cop mirrors John C. Reilly, Garner mirrors Melora Walters. Cregger confirms the cold open is a direct homage and that he fed the trades the 'hereditary meets Magnolia' line.
Little Children 2006
Todd Field's Tom Perrotta adaptation about suburban insecurity and quiet desperation.
Insidious 2010
James Wan; the closest standard-horror visual palette and the kids-in-a-nether-region idea.
Prisoners 2013
Villeneuve and Deakins's child-abduction grief-mystery, an obvious influence; Cregger even scouted its Atlanta neighborhood.
The Shrouds 2024
Cronenberg's grief film Sean pairs with 'Weapons' as a double feature about death and awful decision-making.
Barbarian 2022
Cregger's debut, now streaming on Netflix; different but connected, and yes, basements again.
Zach Cregger on ‘Weapons’spoilers throughout
Zach Cregger on
Son of Saul 2015
The hyper-subjective, perched-on-the-shoulder camera rule Cregger and DP Larkin Seiple set for every chapter.
Zach Cregger on
Needful Things 1993
The TV trailer that 'seared something' into Cregger: a movie he imagined that was better than the one he saw. Sean flagged it from Cregger's own bidding-war episode.
Zach Cregger on
Gone Baby Gone 2007
Amy Madigan 'side B': the lethal, reptilian core Cregger needed for Gladys.
Zach Cregger on
Raising Arizona 1987
The 'full Point Break' spirit behind reshooting the finale into a multi-location kid chase, lawn-mower cutaway and all: four extra days he had to spring on his line producer.
Zach Cregger on
Jaws 1975
Prompted by the 50th-anniversary doc. Cregger relates to Spielberg's traumatic shoot after his own near-collapse (six-day weeks, double shifts) while making 'Weapons.'
Also mentioned raised along the way
Elevated horror, cited and dismissed It FollowsThe WitchGet OutHereditaryLonglegsSinnersSorry, Baby
‘Weapons’ comparison points The ShiningWhiplashThere Will Be Blood
Cregger's lowest-hanging-fruit influences Pulp FictionPicnic at Hanging RockPoint BreakPanic RoomEvil Dead IIHoney, I Shrunk the Kids
Raftery's 2000s franchises and comedy wishlist ShrekSpider-ManHarry PotterThe Lord of the RingsPee-wee's Big AdventureJackass 3D
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV / docs The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (Twilight Zone)Jaws @ 50 (documentary)CarnivàleSiskel and Ebert (Raftery podcast series)The Sony Hack (Raftery podcast series)
Books Best. Movie. Year. Ever. (Brian Raftery)
Video games Resident Evil
Ads FanDuelBoar's HeadState FarmNetflixGoogle AIWhite Claw