the release date serves as a tribute to the director’s late friend and colleague Trevor Moore

Here’s an interesting factoid — Barbarian was not Zach Cregger’s directorial debut. That honor goes to the now-forgotten sex comedy Miss March, which he also starred in alongside his partner from the sketch comedy group The Whitest Kids U Know, Trevor Moore. The film was almost universally panned — except by me, as I actually found it really funny and gave it a glowing review.

Tragically, Trevor Moore died in a freak accident, falling from the balcony of his home. His passing came only hours after he and Cregger had reunited for a Twitch livestream to raise money for a Whitest Kids U Know project — a feature-length comedy called Mars. Moore died on August 7, 2021, and exactly four years later, Cregger released Weapons — a timing that feels far from coincidental.

According to an interview with GQ, Weapons was Cregger’s way of channeling his grief for Moore. “The movie’s about that overwhelming emotion you get when you lose someone close to you,” he said. “This script was me venting about that — so I didn’t explode.”

Indeed, if you’ve seen the movie, grief runs deep throughout — particularly in dialogue from Josh Brolin’s character, Archer, who at one point hallucinates seeing his missing son and apologizes for never telling him he loved him when he was alive. This emotional undercurrent gives Weapons an added weight, as does the fact that one of its co-stars, Aaron Abrams, carries a notably similar energy to Moore. I could easily imagine Moore playing the role Abrams inhabits.

Whatever the case, Weapons clearly struck a chord with audiences, opening well above box office expectations and emerging as the breakout horror hit in a summer otherwise lacking in sleeper successes.