Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Weapons!

Weapons presents itself as being eerily true to life, but its actual status as a “true story” is debatable, at best. The latest film from up-and-coming horror director Zach Cregger, formerly of the YouTube comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’ Know, Weapons has been met with critical acclaim, boasting an impressive 96% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing.

Following in the footsteps of Cregger’s previous film, Barbarian, Weapons centers on a classroom full of kids who mysteriously vanish from their houses in the middle of the night, running off as if compelled by some unknown force. In the fallout of this tragedy, tensions ignite as the members of a small suburban community turn on one another.

The movie begins with a child’s narration, setting up the premise of the sudden mᴀss disappearance of the children. The narrator stresses that the events of the film really happened, presenting the details in hushed whispers of an urban legend told around the lunch table at an elementary school.

More often than not, horror movies based on true stories tend to heavily embellish reality, doubly so if the events they’re supposedly bringing to life are allegedly supernatural in nature. Occasionally, they can stay true to history, but they’re usually only tangentially related to the events at hand.

Weapons Is Not Based On A True Story Like The Opening Narration Suggests

Despite the presentation, Weapons is not based on reality in any way, shape, or form. There has never been a documented case of 17 children getting up out of their beds at 2:17 in the morning simultaneously and running out into the darkness, let alone for the absurd reasons laid out by the end of Weapons.

Of course, the movie has an explanation for this. In the beginning, the child narrator explains that the reason no one will have heard of the story is because the police department covered it up out of embarrᴀssment, not to mention the bizarre paranormal elements at play.

In this way, the film evokes the same urban legend marketing that The Blair Witch Project did back in the late 90s, shrouding the tale in mystery and intrigue. With just one brief aside, Weapons manages to give some plausible deniability to its narrative. If the story was sufficiently buried by the authorities, Weapons can cheekily pitch itself as real all along.

That being said, there is certainly some thematic meaning to Weapons that has a tragically realistic basis in the real world. Weapons deals with the sudden loss and trauma of an entire class full of children suddenly disappearing and the emotional fallout of their community that follows.

This bears some clear similarities to the gun violence that can sadly befall real classrooms in the United States, calling back to the film’s very тιтle. If the thematic link between such events and the film isn’t apparent at first, a mᴀssive looming vision Josh Brolin’s character sees in a certain dream sequence makes things painfully obvious.

Weapons’ Story Of Grief Was Born From A Real-Life Tragedy

There are some more specific events Zach Cregger had in mind during the inception of Weapons, according to his own words. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cregger briefly elaborated on the events in his personal life that partially inspired Weapons.

According to the director, the script for Weapons was written shortly after the sudden loss of a close friend. “I had a tragedy in my life that was really, really tough. Someone very, very, very close to me died suddenly“, Cregger elaborates – “I was so grief-stricken that I just started writing Weapons, not out of any ambition, but just as a way to reckon with my own emotions.”

Cregger goes on to explain that certain parts of the film were legitimately autobiographical, excerpts taken from his own personal experience with grief, trauma, and navigating sudden loss. These kinds of feelings are obvious in viewing Weapons, which examines the drastic lengths grief can drive someone to.

The director even revealed part of Weapons‘ true story influence came from his family’s history with alcohol. Alex’s story ultimately is the source of the alcoholic metaphor, but Cregger has said, “I don’t care if any of this stuff comes through… I hope people have fun, honestly.”

This is why Weapons can feel so real at times, even if it is not telling a true story. Cregger drew on a very real experience in his life and brought those emotions to the horror movie’s screenplay. The tragedy that the writer/director was working through makes the feelings of the characters feel a lot more legitimate.

Weapons also takes plenty of cues from other movies as well as real-world cases and personal tragedies. In the same interview, Cregger lists the Paul Thomas Anderson drama Magnolia as a huge influence on the script. He even goes far enough to say that the film “Was looming over me” during the script’s conception.

Between the very intense experiences felt by Cregger himself, painfully commonplace tragedies, high-profile cases, and other movies, the critically acclaimed horror film has no shortage of compelling DNA. Even if Weapons isn’t based on a true story, there are clear kernels of truth making up the horror.