Warner Bros. is going full creepy-viral to promote Weapons — the upcoming child-horror flick from Barbarian writer-director Zack Cregger. The latest move? An unlisted two-hour surveillance-style video that shows kids running through the night. That’s it. Two straight hours of eerie night vision footage — mostly silent, occasionally disturbing, all deeply unsettling.
The official poster sets the tone perfectly:
“Last night at 2:17 a.m., every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark… and never came back.”
A few of the comments on the video are fun.. A sampling of our favorites:
in the 1980s we would call this “normal”
“Kids are gonna start doing this at night, running down the streets with their arms open and dangling”
“Ok guys. This is the whole movie. Dont waste your money.”
“E V I L….welcome to Holly Wood”
Weapons stars Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, June Diane Raphael, Toby Huss, and Benedict Wong — a solid cast, but let’s be honest, the internet can’t stop talking about that video. It’s already disturbing viewers, with some thinking — at first glance — that it might be actual found footage or worse. It’s not. It’s modern horror marketing, devolved and digitized for maximum effect. And it works. Two hours of children screaming, vanishing, and disappearing into the dark. Nothing concrete, just vibes. Bad ones.
Here is the official trailer:
This might be the most highly anticipated horror release of the summer. The trailer itself? Looks phenomenal. A seemingly mundane setup — high schoolers disappearing on a random Wednesday — but that’s what makes it even more terrifying. I’ve always found that the best horror comes from that sudden rupture of normalcy. The ordinary turning otherworldly. The safe spaces suddenly unsafe.
Horror fans, rejoice. The rest of the world? They’re recoiling at this ad campaign — and that’s probably exactly the point. Love it or hate it, Weapons has everyone talking. Mission accomplished.